Christmas Imbroglio
by clreg
Summary: It's Christmas time. James Henry is 9 years old. Other than James, I am imagining all characters about the same as they were in S7, not older: here James has finally caught up with the TV cast age-wise.
1. Chapter 1

**Christmas Imbroglio**

 _Doc Martin belongs to Buffalo Pictures, this author has no rights, just having fun._

 **Chapter 1**

 **The Row**

 _December 18, early morning_

Martin was looking so intently at his laptop screen that James surmised his father must be watching one of those horrible medical videos. It had been a great day in James' young life when he had worked up the courage to tell his father that those videos gave him nightmares, and he really didn't want to watch them anymore. Martin, always careful not to impose his own preferences on his children, had resisted the temptation to lecture, and then quickly acquiesced: "That is quite alright James. You do not have to be a doctor just because I am, you do not have to watch these videos at all." Later, however, Martin had been relieved to find that his daughter Joanie did not mind the videos at all: she stuck her little fingers on the touch screen eagerly to magnify anatomy pictures, and at dinner used all the color names memorized from her pencils to describe, in vivid detail, what she had seen on daddy's laptop, rather to the disgusted shivers of her mother and brother. Thus James was surprised to see on his father's screen not some gross picture of a bloody organ, but that of a train.

"Dad?" said James.

"Yes?" said Martin while still working at the computer.

"Mum says you are going to London tonight."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I am going to teach young GPs a short course on diagnosing rare conditions and diseases."

"How come you did not tell us before?"

"I didn't know. Another doctor was going to teach this, but she had an accident and they needed a last minute substitute."

"You dad?"

"Yes. I taught this course before in Truro… Nobody else was ready on such short notice, so they asked me to do it."

Not sure he had asked for such a detailed explanation James blurted out: "But the Christmas pageant is in three days and you know I'm the king of the elves! Will you be back in time?"

"I should be, yes. If I'm not, I'm sure your mother will have a video to show me."

"I don't care for a video, I want you to come see me! You know I have a song to sing all by myself, you must come dad!"

"Yes, I do know, and as I said, if all goes as planned, I'll be there. Now I need to buy my train ticket and make a hotel reservation... You can help me if you like."

At that James felt important and went to sit on his father's knee.

"See James, this is the timetable with all available trains. Can you find one that leaves this afternoon at about… 5:00, or 17:00?"

James studied the table attentively. It made no sense to him at all. Then he recognized something.

"I see Bodmin Parkway!" he said happily pointing at it.

"Good. Now follow with your eyes or your finger along the horizontal line with the times. "

James looked at the first number, and it was early in the morning, and the next one a bit later. With a big smile he scrolled all the way to the right and towards the end saw 17:21.

"There it is!" and he put his finger right on it.

"Thank you James, you selected just the train I wanted. Now we buy the ticket. See here, I have to write my name and address. "

"Doctor Martin Ellingham!" said James triumphantly jumping up.

"Yes, James, but don't yell please."

"Sorry. "

"Can you type my name?" asked Martin. James complied, nodding happily.

"Dad, will your name be printed on the ticket? "

"No, but you have to put your name in here to pay with a credit card."

Martin pulled out his wallet and took out a credit card.

"Would you like to write in the number James? It's a very long number."

"Don't be silly dad, I know my numbers, of course I can do it."

"I'm never silly young man, you should know that much about your father," said Martin.

"Sorry… but you shouldn't think that I can't copy a lot of numbers in a row, I could do it with my eyes closed!"

"Better you do it with your eyes wide open."

"OK," said James, and accurately copied the number on the electronic form. "Now what?"

"Now you copy these other numbers," Martin explained, showing James how to enter the card's expiration date and security codes. Shortly thereafter the ticket was ready and printed.

"And now the hotel. It is another website," said Martin and typed "Savoy Hotel London" in the search bar and the link for the hotel appeared. He clicked on that and said: "Now this is easier than the train timetable. You can choose the room… I want this single room… And you can choose your dates on these small calendars. I will get there tonight, teach two whole days and come back the third day."

"So…" said James with furrowed brows, "today is the 18th, you teach the young GPs on the 19th and the 20th, and come back on the 21st. Three whole nights dad! You never go away three whole nights. You are going to be lonely, aren't you? "

"Yes, I will miss you, your sister and your mother. But those young GPs need to learn, we can't let them make mistakes, can we?"

"Right, and my dad is the best doctor in the whole world!" screamed James happily spreading his arms wide and elbowing Martin's head in the process.

"Sorry," said James.

"I'm not the best anything," said Martin, rubbing his forehead.

"Mum says you are."

"Your mother is too kind," Martin sighed, "could we please book the hotel? My first patient will arrive soon enough."

"Here, click on 18…"mumbled James, "...leave on 21… OK. Done?"

"We need to write the credit card information again. Can you do that all by yourself? It works the same way as for the train ticket."

"Of course!" said James enthusiastically and typed in all the requisite numbers again, with very little help from Martin. "Done now?"

"Yes, that's a confirmation number, see?" answered Martin. "We don't need to print that, no sense wasting paper, it's bad for the environment. See that string of numbers and letters? Can you write that and Savoy, S.A.V.O.Y., at the bottom of the train ticket page we just printed?"

"Sure dad." And James copied, with Martin making sure the code was right. It was.

"We are done James, thanks for your help. Now you know how to buy a train ticket and book a hotel."

"But I can't travel by myself, can I?"

"No, but it's useful to know. Let's get back to the kitchen, I need another espresso."

"Isn't too much coffee bad for you dad?"

"Yes, but two cups of espresso is not that much."

"Can I drink it then?"

"No, caffeine is not good for children. "

"Can I just taste a little dad? "

"It's bitter, you wouldn't like it."

"But can I?"

"Mm… a small sip will be fine."

"Yeah, oh yeah, I can drink espresso!" exclaimed James joyously.

"That's not what I said, just a sip!"

"Sure, just a sip, but it's still espresso, so I can drink espresso, oh yeah!" said James and he ran to the kitchen.

Martin closed his eyes and counted silently to ten, as he feared he was about to get a headache.

While the two Ellingham men were arranging Martin's trip, Louisa and her daughter Joanie were sitting at the kitchen table, discussing Joanie's participation in the school's Christmas pageant. The seven year old girl was sad, and upset.

"But mum,"she complained, "why do I have to sing in front of everyone? I don't want to. I don't like it." She gave a look of anguish and angry temper mixed together so reminiscent of Martin's that Louisa had to hold back a smile.

"Joanie, you would be the only child in the school not participating in the pageant in any way. Would that not make you feel odd? "

"No, that would make me feel good."

"You think so now love, but if you were sitting in the audience when all your school mates are on stage singing, how would you feel then?" asked Louisa.

Joanie thought about it a little and said: "Happy for them."

Louisa shook her head, suppressing a smile and not knowing exactly what to answer.

"Let's get ready for school now, we'll talk about this again later," said Louisa.

Right then James ran in screaming something about espresso, while Martin stopped standing by the door with a puzzled look when he took in his little girl's very unhappy face.

Martin loved all the members of his family to bits and would make any sacrifice for any of them, to make them happy and keep them safe. But Joanie… she was his little girl, and as fate would have it, though she looked much like her mother, her personality was rather more like Martin's, so they understood each other very well and had a really special bond. Martin often reflected on the vagaries of genes that could mix in such a random way to create a seeming impossibility: James who looked like Martin but was as extroverted and socially adept as his mother; and Joanie, with soft brown hair, green-blue eyes, high cheekbones and a beauty glow about her, who was very shy, and preferred to pass her time with puzzles and other solo games than babbling away with other girls. Her beauty, Martin knew, was bound to make some poor sod fall for her so hard some day as he had for her mother… though just the thought of that gave Martin the shivers, so he dropped it immediately.

Joanie was a lucky girl to have parents who made her feel safe in her most painfully shy moments, especially Martin, who read all her expressions and feelings to perfection, because he had been in that shy place of hers all of his life. Louisa, however, had a genuine concern that Joanie would not do as well as she might if she did not learn to relate to her peers and people in general. And Louisa certainly would not let Joanie grow up to be half as rude as Martin could be. Of that, however, there was no danger, because Joanie was at heart just as sweet as Martin, but unlike Martin never had to hide it from the world under a suit of armor. Her parents, and especially Martin, were her armor. Indeed, Martin need not have worried about any future Portwenn boys going after Joanie. It would indeed take a dragon-slaying youth to face up to the doc when it came to Joanie, and the whole of Portwenn already knew to steer clear.

Thus when Martin entered the kitchen and saw Joanie's very unhappy expression, he picked her up in his arms and asked her in his most tender tone: "What's the matter Joanie?"

"I don't want to sing in the pageant! I don't want the people watching me! I don't want to!"

"Well don't then," answered Martin quite spontaneously, "I'm sure the pageant will go on just as well, in fact James will carry half of it himself if I know him."

But, in looking lovingly into his daughter's slightly less disgruntled face, Martin had not seen the thunder immediately gathering on his wife's brow.

"Thank you Martin!" roared Louisa. "Now that really helps!"

Martin looked taken aback and immediately recognized Trouble with a capital T, or maybe even TROUBLE?

"I just don't think we should force Joanie… or any child… to perform in public if she feels uncomfortable about it," said Martin somewhat defensively.

"What? You do not want her to be unable to speak in public without floundering," thundered Louisa, "or to isolate herself from other children, do you Martin?!"

"What's a floundering?" asked Joanie always keen to learn, but for once she was ignored even by Martin. His ire too was rising, as he thought of Joanie on stage with the spotlight shining on her, mute in a speechless panic. No, she definitely needed his protection this time, even if it was from her mother's well-meaning efforts to make Joanie less shy.

"In my consulting room!" gestured Martin to Louisa in a cold and rather harsh tone.

Louisa grabbed her coat and marched to the consulting room ready for battle: he would not raise Joanie to be socially inept, that she vowed to herself.

Throughout all this James had stood mute and mesmerized, with his hand on the espresso machine, his tasting forgotten. He had never really seen mum and dad speak to each other quite like that. Martin and Louisa had in fact always been very careful to have their arguments away from the children. It was quite startling. James' vision of his parents together was of Louisa and Martin kissing hello or goodbye on the cheeks or lips; of them in their big bed inviting him in for a game of tickles; of them going out to dinner together, with dad bringing flowers or a gift on their anniversary; of mum taking off her shoe under the table and caressing dad's leg, which James could always deduce because dad's ears turned red and mum giggled for no apparent reason. So this sudden burst of anger made no sense to James and it scared him. He tiptoed to the consulting room's door and…. tried to eavesdrop, closely followed by Joanie. Now Joanie adored James almost as much as Martin, and where James led, she followed, hardly ever questioning his actions which were always far more daring than she would have liked.

Standing close to the consulting room door in the hall they could definitely hear loud, angry voices even if no words could be understood. James ran to the kitchen, took a plastic cup, pressed the cup to the closed door's keyhole and then his ear to it. James' heart was pounding and then the volume of the voices inside increased even more and this is what he heard:

Dad: "…because you think you know better about the children, so you decide about them for both of us without asking or discussing. You could have asked me what I thought about Joanie singing in the pageant!"

Mum: "Well it's not as if you always consulted me when you make decisions."

Dad: "Yes I do!"

Mum: "No you don't!"

Dad: "And what may I ask have I decided lately without consulting you?"

Mum: "Well you certainly did not ask me before you decided to go teach this course in London all of a sudden! Right when the school is very busy preparing the Christmas pageant, and I need to finish a lot of reports in the next couple of days!"

Dad: "But that's so unfair! I was asked to substitute for someone who had an accident, there was no way to know that ahead of time or find someone else! "

Mum: "Really? In all of ENGLAND? There was no one else?"

Dad: "No one else as well qualified on short notice. My practice has the lowest misdiagnosis record in the nation…"

Mum: "I KNOW! But you still could have said no, couldn't you?"

Dad: "Why? Those young GPs need the best possible training they can get. And in any event this was a work-related issue, nothing to do with our personal lives! I don't decide ANYTHING that has to do with our personal lives without consulting you first. Unlike you!"

Mum: "Oh, and what have _I_ decided lately without consulting with you first, ah? What? "

Dad: "Oh, you were just about to throw Joanie to the wolves all on your own!"

Mum: "That's silly! Wolves!"

Dad: "Yes, and it follows a long established pattern, that… you think you are right about something and there is really no space for me to contribute."

Mum: "Like what, Martin, what in the world are you talking about?!"

Dad: "Like...if you don't agree with what I have to say, you walk away in anger without giving me the possibility to explain, your ideas and feelings being more important than mine I guess… it's all based on an assumption, that because you are the mother you have more rights to decide about the children than I do. I have never understood that. It started very early on by not telling me for six whole months, SIX WHOLE MONTHS! that you were pregnant, that we were going to have James, our James, and you decided everything there was to be decided about him all by yourself! We were not together then, but you should have told me!"

Mum: "But that's such a long time ago! I was scared, and by the looks of it you really did NOT want us then!"

Dad: "WHAT? I immediately asked you if you wanted to marry."

Mum: "You immediately also said I could have had an abortion!… and you WERE WITH EDITH FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

Dad: "I wasn't WITH Edith! She just happened to be there!"

Mum: "Well, right then it certainly looked to me like you had moved on with Edith and couldn't be bothered with me and James! You suggested marriage right then ONLY BECAUSE I WAS PREGNANT!"

Dad: "OH? YOU MADE ALL THAT UP IN YOUR HEAD, WHICH WAS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE YOU NEVER ASKED ME HOW I FELT, DID YOU?"

Dad sounded completely besides himself now. At that point in the row a rather shocked James, standing transfixed outside the door, heard a big noise from within the consulting room, a noise his panicked brain did not read correctly. He thought they must be physically fighting, whereas in his angry gesticulating Martin had accidentally knocked down a pile of medical supplies, and an empty glass vial had shattered. James, not being able to contain his feelings any longer, was about to open the door, when he heard a "Psst!" in the hall and turned to see Morwenna gesturing to him frantically and shaking her head and right index finger to mean "No, don't go in!" James refrained then, as Morwenna always knew best about the doc's moods. In his retreat James was just in time to avoid his mother furiously opening the door, slamming it shut again, and marching out.

"James, Joanie, get your coats and bags! Come on or we'll be late for school!" Louisa called them very loudly, clearly furious.

While Joanie had not understood any of the angry words coming from the consulting room, she knew in her heart that she had caused all this herself by not wanting to sing in the Christmas pageant. She felt as miserable as miserable can be, and rushed to get her coat with lowered head and tears stinging her eyes. She swallowed several times. Despite his own inner turmoil, James immediately perceived Joanie's despair. He took her hand in his and whispered: "I'll fix this, don't worry, and it's NOT your fault. " Then he lowered his eyes dejectedly: "It's mine," he thought, "all mine."

Then the children rushed after their mother who was practically running down Roscarrock Hill.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **Try To Fix It If You Can**

 _December 18, morning and lunchtime_

Martin sat in his consulting room breathing slowly in and out, in and out, trying to calm himself. How had it all gotten out of hand like this? He had only meant to protect Joanie, and sure enough Louisa's habit of deciding any school related matters for the children by herself was very upsetting. However, he did not need to make a scene about it, and deeply regretted referring to old history, such as the period when she was expecting James. Why did that even come to mind? He had not thought about it in a long time. He felt exhausted and stupid. In the last few years they had had fewer and fewer rows, and Louisa had only walked out with the children once. He had followed immediately. Unbeknownst to the small children, what had started as a big quarrel had become a rare family vacation which they still fondly remembered. The row this morning was not as bad, and he felt quite sure they would apologize to each other and find a solution for Joanie together. Still, he was unhappy about the whole mess and decided he needed to make amends as soon as possible. Unfortunately it would be hard to do that this time because he had to leave for London right after closing surgery in the afternoon. While he was thinking about ways he might be able to re-start communications with Louisa before his trip, Morwenna knocked, came in and closed the door behind her.

"Before your first patient doc…. I saw your message that you'll be gone for three days, and I'll reschedule everyone, don't worry… But…"

Martin sighed: "Go on, we haven't got all day."

"Yeah doc… it's just I heard your row with Louisa….'twas pretty loud…"

Suddenly worried, Martin asked: "Do you think the children might have heard too? I think they were in the kitchen. "

"I was in the reception room, I don't know, probably not," lied Morwenna quickly: she had already decided that, as the doc's mood was going to be black this day, she was not going to make it even worse by telling him that James had been eavesdropping.

"So what then Morwenna? Get on with it."

"Well doc, given past times you had me order flowers and such for Louisa… when you had rows… well I know something Louisa wants."

"You do?"

"Yeah. "

"And what is that? "

"I'd rather not say."

"Are you pulling my leg? Why are you telling me that you know and then don't say?" he almost yelled, losing his patience. This girl had a way of beating around the bush that was rather unnerving.

"'Cause I'll send you the link doc, that's why, and you see for yourself if you like it. But I'm not going to show you myself 'cause… you'd get all red in the face and yell at me. Louisa's been saving up for it."

Martin was stone-faced, because just the thought of any item which, in Morwenna's judgment, would make him blush, was in fact making him blush already, even though he did not yet know what it was. And leave it to Louisa to giggle with other women about items that would make him blush. Oh well, he would at least look at that link.

"Fine," he said without looking at her, "send this link and send in the first patient."

Martin was not able to check his email and retrieve Morwenna's link till two hours later, in between patients who all seemed to be coming down with upper respiratory infections. Winter in Portwenn, what else can you expect?

When he finally clicked on the link what he saw did in fact make him blush, cough, blush, cough some more (upper respiratory infection?), blush. Good God Louisa! It was a red what? He read the item name. A nightgown? It was definitely more lace than gown… The model in the picture was also a brunette with creamy white skin, so it was obvious that the color would look really well on Louisa. Martin being Martin, he immediately replaced in his mind the model's face with that of his wife, and that had at least one positive effect, as he stopped coughing. He closed his eyes, thought for a moment: this item seemed to him a really silly investment, but he did not want to send just some flowers. And he knew he had no understanding of female psychology. So perhaps in this case Morwenna's instincts may be better than his? "All right then," he decided. He had no idea how so little material could cost so much, but if it made Louisa happy, so be it. Come to think of it, this silly item might well make him very happy too. So he took out his credit card again and ordered the red nightgown as a special delivery to make sure it would be in Portwenn by the time he got back from London. He also paid the extra for gift-wrapping and wrote this message to be printed on a card that would be in the package: "Louisa, please forgive me. Love, Martin." Done. He had hopes this would actually work.

He would absolutely not look Morwenna in the face again today.

* * *

Louisa sat in her office disgruntled, still fuming a bit, but beginning to let a cooler head prevail. Oh Martin, sweet, rude, loving, irascible, sexy, annoying, honest, infuriating, wonderful Martin! She could have added several other adjectives, there were so many facets to the man! And he was definitely all hers, to bear and enjoy. She loved him to bits, but why could he not see that she was really more competent in terms of assessing a child's behavior in school? If it were up to Martin Joanie would grow up in her own little world, utterly uninformed about people outside. That wouldn't do. She would give the same advice to any child, not just her own, to participate in school activities.

It was true, however, that Joanie was just as painfully shy as Martin. She sat there thinking about her children, so different from each other, James jumping at any opportunity to shine in public, Joanie hiding on most occasions. Well, they were just as different as Martin and herself, unsurprisingly. She sighed. As she had learned to accept and adapt to Martin's quirky personality, she would probably need to be equally flexible with Joanie. Her teacher's instincts told her to encourage her daughter to socialize, her wifely and motherly instincts said… take time, be gentle, Joanie is a little, precious, sensitive soul. A few more sighs and puffs later she had some thoughts about possible solutions to Joanie's current dilemma. Yes Louisa, be patient, talk to Martin first, decide together, act together. Shouldn't be so hard… And she surmised, smiling to herself, if I know my Martin he'll probably come by at lunch break.

* * *

James was fidgeting at his desk, barely listening to his teacher. He always had to work at sitting still, but this morning was really difficult. He could not stop thinking about his parents' row. He had never seen them or heard them so angry with each other. True dad never failed to yell at daft patients, but he was always nice to mum. The greatest puzzle for James was the apparent trigger of the row, Joanie's participation in the Christmas pageant. He did not believe that was the reason, it really did not seem important enough an item to cause that much anger. That other item though, his father not wanting mum and the baby, ME!... marrying mum just because mum was pregnant, she had said… What did that mean, really? That he, James, his coming into this world, was to blame, didn't it? But then again, dad never behaved as if he did not want or love them all. James could not make heads or tails of his parents' row, but the feeling of personal guilt, though nebulous, was still palpable.

Smart as James was, he still had a literal child's mind, and could not see the problem beneath the Christmas pageant issue. His limited understanding of the adult world did not allow him to see that there could be an honest, serious disagreement between his parents about how to handle Joanie. The only thing that kept coming into his mind was, quite naturally, something personally experienced. It was what James had heard several times among his peers at school: parents' marriages not being happy, parents being together by mistake or mischance, parents quarreling, not getting along, mums or dads suddenly leaving, then getting a divorce. Divorce. He had seen that happen to his school mates often enough. It did happen to see a school mate get strangely sad, or upset, and then if you asked what was wrong it was trouble with the parents. But this had never happened to him before! He had always been blissful in his childish certainty that his parents had no problems whatsoever. And again, that reference about his dad not wanting mum and HIM! before he was born, that stuck in his mind more than anything else. It definitely made it sound like they had not even been married back then, which would be complete news to him. And who was this Edith person anyway?!

Until a few months ago James would not have known that it was even possible to have babies without being married, he had never given it any thought. But then farmer Wilkins' teen-aged son Bobby had laughed at him one day showing him a stallion that was… mounting?... a mare and told him: "James, you silly boy, you didn't think horses get married, did you?" James then had asked his dad, who had immediately launched into a scientific explanation of the horse behavior. Dad told him a lot about bees, Aunt Ruth's chickens and eggs, sows and piglets, and a lot else about which James only clearly remembered one thing: being stunned to hear that people can make babies that way too! Dad would explain that more in a few years, he had said. So… if mum and dad had not been married… No, James could not visualize his dad behaving like a farm animal that has babies (or foals, chicks, or piglets) without being married, with that… mounting?...thingy... Still, dad's bees and chicks speech made it possible at least to believe his parents somehow had not even been married when they had him. How confusing! James concluded there must be two ways you have babies: either the mounting thingy, OR being married, with the latter being the best, more proper for sure, as there was no need to go about it like farmer Wilkins' stallion. That had been… disgusting! Whichever his father had done though, James could not imagine dad not caring for them. His dad was always nice to him. It made no sense! His dad did want them, didn't he, and he would never leave and divorce, would he? He couldn't do this to mum, to them all, he mustn't!... And then there was Joanie. As upset and confused as James was about this whole thing, he knew she'd be crushed, she was like that Joanie: she would insist it was all her fault and then she would cry, or shut down and sit there forever all sad and moody. He really needed to find a way to fix things between his parents, he would not let them divorce, oh no. He would not just sit there and do nothing like some other kids. He would fix it.

Having reassured himself that it was not too late to act, he relaxed a bit and raised his head from his desk and began to look around. As soon as he did that his eyes fell on Michael Maloney, and when they did so his lips spread into a big smile: Mikey was just the mate he needed to talk to.

At lunch break James spied Joanie sitting very dejectedly at a table by herself. She had a best friend, Melanie, but Melanie must be sick today because she was not at school. James sighed, took his lunch plate and purposely passed by Mikey and told him, with a serious business air about him: "Hey Mikey, I need to talk to you. Catch you in art class."

"Sure" said Mikey with his mouth full "see ya."

James then put his plate down near Joanie, who did not seem to be eating at all.

"Hello Joanie. You look really sad."

"'cause I am." But she did seem to brighten up a little at the sight of her adored big brother.

"I was sad too, but now I'm thinking of a plan."

"You always plan something James, and it's a disaster."

"No, this time it's important, it will not be one of those times as dad says, that I do things without thinking through. I'm going to think about it. A lot. You'll see."

"What you plan 'bout?"

"About mum and dad making up."

"That's OK James, no need: I'll sing in the pageant."

"No Joanie, you shouldn't have to if you don't want to, mum won't make you, she's not mean."

"But if I sing then they don't need to fight anymore. "

"No Joanie, you shouldn't. I'll get them to make up, and I don't think you singing or not is why they were screaming like that. This is not your fault. "

Joanie did not say anything for a while and then asked: "I really want'em to make up. Can I help with your plan?" She seemed more hopeful, so James replied: "Maybe, I'll figure out something for you to do too."

Joanie regarded him with adoring eyes and began filling her mouth with mashed potatoes.

* * *

Lunch break might well be the only time Martin would be able to say anything to Louisa before his trip to London. With his train leaving at 17:21 he would have very little time between finishing with patients and driving to the station. Martin thought he might go by the school at lunchtime and begin to mend things with Louisa then. They had not had a row like this in quite some time, and he knew it would take more than a brief talk to make up. He had also learned over the years that letting Louisa give her interpretation of what he had said or done without any intervention on his part was extremely counterproductive. For whatever reason, Louisa's first angry reaction was always to give his words the worst possible spin, and it always took some time for her to truly cool off and reconsider, with that time becoming even longer if he also sulked or acted offended or angry. Long experience told him that waiting several hours for her temper to cool was wise, while waiting an entire day was not. Waiting three whole days with Louisa stewing in her own angry juices would not do at all. As a consequence at Noon Martin put on his coat, went to the school and found Louisa immediately, standing outside in the cold, true daughter of Cornwall, watching the sea. The children though were not playing outside today, too chilly. "Thanks God," he thought, "we can talk in peace for a minute." For a moment he also had _déjà vu_ : how many times over the years had he walked into this school courtyard apprehensive about what Louisa would say to him? He had lost count. He sighed and walked straight to her and called her name.

"Martin," she said turning around, not at all surprised to see him.

He had some hope then that she was there outside in the cold waiting for him, hoping he would come.

"Louisa… I am sorry about this morning. We have different ideas about Joanie's participation in the pageant, but I should not have said the things I said. "

"Well I'm sorry too Martin. I'm surprised that you are still so... bitter that I didn't tell you about being pregnant for six months. It was a long time ago and I thought we were over that. "

Martin was silent for a while and then said: "I'm surprised as well... I had not thought about it in a long time, but… I think it was that old fear of mine... that you have control of the children, can take them away if you like… if you make decisions about the children without including me… that scares me... Being excluded from your first pregnancy… it's just the most egregious case of my not having any control... And you… you are not still thinking about Edith, are you?"

Louisa shook her head with a bitter-sweet smile: "No Martin, I had not thought about Edith in years. It's just you brought those really difficult, painful months back all over for a moment. I guess old wounds never really disappear entirely. But let's forget Edith, OK?"

"Yes, please. But this is important. I don't like it when you decide alone about the children, it does make me feel excluded... and I do try my best to be a good father to them. "

"You are Martin. "

"So please Louisa, let's make decisions about the children together…"

"Martin, I see your point, and again, I'm sorry this morning brought an old… fear or anger back to the surface… but of course I don't mean to have exclusive control of the children. You should consider we are dealing with a school matter here… and especially that I would say the same things I told Joanie to any other girl in the school who chose to isolate herself. "

Martin thought about this for a few moments, looking at the beautiful cold sea, and then said: "I see. Louisa, I really must go back home and prepare for my trip now, but I think we should both use these three days apart to… to think about how we can find common ground, for the children's sake."

"And for our own as well. Agreed. Do send a message when you get there, but we can talk again in three days. I'm glad you came by. Have a good trip, Martin. "

Though he felt a bit like a dismissed pupil, Martin nodded and left. All in all this had gone well, he thought. She was still cold, but beginning to melt a little. They had differing viewpoints clearly, but Louisa now seemed more concerned than angry. He was heartened by that consideration. After thinking on this for three days they would both be ready to find a _modus vivendi_ , as they had had to do so many times before.

While walking briskly back to the surgery an unbidden vision of Louisa in the red nightgown suddenly took possession of his mind. He shook his head then. "Ellingham," he thought, "back to work now, back to work. " But a tiny smile almost found its way to his lips, though no one would have been able to tell.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **The Many Facets of Marriage**

 _December 18, afternoon and evening_

Louisa looked in consternation at the pile of papers on her desk. Being Head Teacher had lots of rewards, but reports and forms were definitely not in that category. She sighed. Martin would not be home tonight to help with dinner, it was up to her. She needed to finish this paperwork by tomorrow night and send it off, but shopping and cooking would cut considerably the time available. Bless Martin, he was always so well organized that you could generally drop unforeseen parenting tasks on him and, barring medical emergencies, he would find the time. She sighed again and decided for the only other option that came to mind. She picked up her phone and called Ruth.

"Hello Ruth… Did Martin tell you he'd be off to London till the 21st?... Yes, some last minute teaching duty, young GPs learning about rare disease diagnosis… Yes it probably is rewarding, he seems to think he is the best qualified doctor in all of England to teach this course…" they both laughed "And he's right about that too… Ruth I'm sorry to have to ask this, but could James and Joanie have tea with you after school today and tomorrow? I have a lot of reports to finish by tomorrow night, and with Martin not being home I'm not sure where to send them while I work here… Yes, just some light items, I'll be making some supper for them later anyway… Thank you Ruth, that really helps. They'll walk directly to your cottage at the end of the school day… Brilliant, thank you so much. Cheers."

That settled Louisa went to the art class and poked her head in. When all turned in her direction she just said: "James, please come here a moment." Still holding a colored pencil James walked to the door. In the hall Louisa asked him: "What are you drawing today James? "

"A stallion marrying a mare. He's dun, mare's brown."

Louisa's eyes went wide: "Ah, that's… unusual. And is the vicar marrying them?"

"Don't be silly mum, horses can't go to church. Farmer Wilkins is marrying them, they're his horses."

"I see… I just wanted to say that you and Joanie will have tea at Aunt Ruth's today, and tomorrow as well, since dad will not be home and I have a lot of paperwork to finish here at school."

"Will Aunt Ruth have any chocolate digestives?"

"Oh dear, don't let me think about chocolate digestives right now James! Well, I don't know, but she's sure to have something sweeter than anything your dad usually feeds you at tea."

"Fine then."

"And it's cold James, make sure you both button up your coats."

"Yes mum."

"And wear your scarves and hats too."

"Yes mum."

"Back to class then. Are the horses going on a honeymoon too?"

"Tsk, I really don't think farmer Wilkins would pay for that mum."

"Mm… you're right about that. "

Back in art class James returned to coloring the brown mare. He took a look at the picture with a satisfied air: both horses were smiling widely, happy horses. Proper horses, getting married. James brought the picture to the art and music teacher, Mrs. Holmes.

"Why James, great coloring. Odd theme…" observed Mrs. Holmes.

"Mikey is done with his too, may I go ask him a question? "

"Yes if you are quiet about it. "

"I will be, promise. "

"Very well then, go."

James walked over to Mikey who was doodling idly.

"Mikey," whispered James "listen."

"What?"

"How are your mum and dad?"

"Fine, why?"

"Didn't your dad go away from home for a while? "

"That was… a long time ago. He's home now."

"Why did he go away?"

"Don't know really, but mum was talking about a divorce. Then he came back though."

"That's what I thought. Why did he come back?"

"Don't know, I didn't ask him did I? Didn't want to get yelled at, did I?"

Mikey had a big round face and a brooding look about him, but James was not deterred.

"What I mean is…" continued James, "did he send your mum flowers or something? My dad does that sometimes. "

"The doc sends flowers?" smirked Mikey, he seemed to find the notion ludicrous.

James looked him in the eye with a warning glare. Whenever kids at school said anything disparaging about the doc James always made it known that would not do, not in his presence anyway. Mikey was much larger than James, who had inherited his father's height but was quite skinny, given the general absence of nutritionally empty calories and despite the chocolate digestives sneaked in by mum. But it was very well known at school that James never backed down, even less if the doc was involved. So Mikey wisely decided to ignore the Ellingham glare and said: "So what?"

"Did your father give your mum a present, to make up like."

"Don't think so… they did go on a trip though, second honeymoon mum said. "

"Second honeymoon?" James brightened up. "A trip. Where did they go?"

"Not sure, but dad did complain afterwards that it was 'xpensive."

"Is that all?"

"What?"

"Your da, didn't do anything else?"

"What do I know?"

"So your parents are OK now?"

Mikey shrugged: "Seems so."

"Thanks mate, see ya" concluded James, got up and went back to his desk.

A second honeymoon. He could not picture his dad going on a honeymoon with mum any more than farmer Wilkins' horses, but still, it was a possibility, wasn't it?

* * *

"Hello Aunt Ruth. Hello Al" said James politely as he entered his grand aunt's apartment.

"Hello" mumbled Joanie.

"Good afternoon children" said Ruth "How are you?"

"Fine" answered James taking off his coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

Al came up and said: "Let me help you Joanie… there you go. Let's hang these up, OK?"

"OK" said Joanie in another mumble.

Al quickly had things sorted. Holding Joanie in his arms he said:

"Joanie and I will lay out the tea items."

"Thank you Al, do so please" replied Ruth and they all marched off to the kitchen. In short order Al produced a steaming teapot and a platter full of scones and biscuits. James was hungry and immediately took a scone, and even Joanie was tempted and began munching on a biscuit.

Ruth and Al had been having a business conversation which they were now continuing while the children warmed up with the tea and filled their stomachs.

"Am I to understand Al," was asking Ruth "that this Doctor Foster, booked at the B&B and came with some woman, not his wife, then his wife found out somehow and descended there last night?"

"Yes, she came, and smashed their bedroom, that's what I was trying to explain to you earlier" replied Al.

"Smashed?"

"Yeah, she threw around everything, everything she could grab she threw. And a lot of items were broken. "

"Was her name Edith?" James asked Al.

"Who?" said Al a bit bewildered.

"The other woman, not the wife. Was her name Edith?"

Totally puzzled Al said: "I think she was a Samantha. Why Edith?"

"Nothing, just asking," mumbled James with a large piece of scone in his mouth.

"Well," said Ruth with her lopsided smile, "we really don't care about their love lives, but they do need to pay the damages for all the items they threw at each other and broke."

"Fortunately it was nothing unique they broke, but there is damage to the walls too… and the en suite door," said Al.

"I would prefer it if we could settle this amicably with Doctor Foster, it would be quite a nuisance to have to go through it with solicitors."

"Oh Ruth, I do hope we don't have to see the solicitors, though Doctor Foster was slightly injured. He was trying to stop his wife from getting into the en suite where the other woman was hiding. The wife threw this and that at him, banged on the door when she could, scratched him A LOT! He was bleeding. And they all screamed…A LOT!... He says he wants a divorce now."

Ruth actually chuckled a little at that, imagining poor Al, and probably Bert, attempting to restrain the mad trio. That's when Ruth turned around and saw the stricken looks on the children's faces. Perplexed she said: "Children, nothing too bad happened, just some broken items and some scratches."

The kids still looked shaken.

"What?" said Al "Is something the matter you two?"

James looked down, then looked up again, clearly troubled, not speaking.

"What's the problem James?" Ruth asked "You can tell your old aunt, she'll understand."

"Oh Aunt Ruth!" burst out James "Mum and dad had a bad row this morning!"

"What, in front of you? "

"No they went into the consulting room, but it was LOUD! And it also sounded like something fell… or was thrown…"

"Oh, we can at least be sure there wasn't another woman hiding in Martin's consulting room," joked Ruth.

"It's not funny, Aunt Ruth, not funny at all!" exclaimed James upset.

"It's not, sorry James. And Joanie… you seem very upset about it, you can't stop staring at your plate…" sighed Ruth and she turned back to James with an inquiring look.

"We were both upset, but Joanie thinks it's her fault. "

"Does she now?" exclaimed Ruth raising her eyebrows.

"It is too," said Joanie doggedly.

"My dear girl, your parents were perfectly able to quarrel much before you were born. "

Al laughed: "And how!"

"In fact Joanie," continued Ruth, "if anything they seem to have had a lot fewer rows since you were born than before. "

"Really?" asked Joanie.

"Yes, really my dear. There was a time when… well I'd better not tell tales. Your parents will tell you some day I'm sure. But children, a lot of parents do quarrel, it's not strange at all, and I'm sure it's not your fault Joanie. "

"But it is" repeated Joanie stubbornly, with a Martin-like scowl.

"Well, Aunt Ruth," said James staring at his empty tea cup and plate, "you could say they started to scream about Joanie not wanting to sing in the Christmas pageant… but they were really too angry to be screaming so much just about that."

"I'm sure you are right about Joanie not being to blame James. Well Joanie, your mother and father are very different from each other, they cannot agree about everything. I guess sometimes they can lose their temper. I wouldn't worry too much about it. They'll probably kiss and make up when Martin comes back from London."

"Did they really have a lot of rows? Mum and dad?" asked James.

"Well, yes, but they always made up," replied Ruth. "I have been pleasantly surprised by their ability to make up time and again. One wonders whether anything could ever really pull them apart."

This last sentence in Ruth's intention was reassurance that in fact nothing would ever pry Martin off Louisa, and vice versa. James, however, worried and naïve as he was, took this entire reassuring speech the exact opposite way. To James any talk that Martin and Louisa had ever had great rows and needed to make up repeatedly was news, really bad news in fact. If you did not get along with some kids at school that meant those were not your mates and, he thought, they could never be. For instance, he did not like Nigel and they fought all the time. Nigel thought he was better than everybody else and was always snarling at James, just because James did not kowtow to him like all his various minions on the playground. So why would James ever become Nigel's friend? No, there were some people you simply did not get along with. So how could his parents not get along with each other, then make up, then marry just because of HIM!, then quarrel, then make up, and then what? The whole thing made very little sense to James, but he just knew that if you did not get along with someone it was always a bad business, and this morning had been a revelation, a truly horrible revelation, that all was not as well as he had always believed between his parents. At the very least his mum and dad needed that second honeymoon. What you did at a second honeymoon he had no idea, but if it worked for Mikey's parents why not for his? The problem was then, how would he get them to go?

* * *

The evening passed uneventfully. Martin sent Louisa a brief text message: " _Arrived safely in London. I miss you all. I'm reviewing my notes and going to bed. Goodnight_." To which Louisa replied: " _All is well here. We miss you too. Goodnight_. "

James and Joanie were rather subdued, but Louisa thought they just missed their dad. She read several chapters to them and they both settled in for the night quite early. The emotional upset had been really exhausting.

Louisa herself was tired. The row with Martin and the school paperwork had sapped her energy. She also turned in early. The empty spot next to her was so unusual. It was really rare for Martin and Louisa to spend any nights apart. After their brief separation not long after their wedding, around James' first birthday, they had never really been apart – except that one time she had run off, but Martin had found her quickly, and followed with lots of supplies and luggage in the car's boot, and they had made it a vacation. Martin and Louisa had in fact grown close over the years. Martin would never be loquacious, but he did confide in her, and Louisa of course always talked to him about lots of things. He never seemed tired of her babbling. She sometimes had the impression he was just enjoying the sound of her voice rather than listening to her words, but that was endearing too in Martin's odd way. Unless the matter was important to her, like a crisis at school. Then he gave her his undivided attention and good advice too at times. Since that brief separation eight years ago, each night in bed he had stayed close to her. Years later he had explained that after that separation, when she had let him come back home, he had vowed never to let a day pass without showing her that he loved her, even if it was in his odd, small ways. And Martin always did stick to his vows, no question about that.

In the months after that separation Martin had slowly become more confident in their relationship. That's when they had decided to have another child, before they became too old for it. Surprisingly, Martin had suggested it himself with a medical lecture about geriatric pregnancies and their risks, a lecture which Louisa had read correctly as the proposal it really was. Her second pregnancy was the exact opposite of the first. Because Martin saw Louisa every day, he could follow her progress closely without needing to ask hardly any questions. She knew he was doing it, monitoring her, but he was so discreet and sweetly attentive she did not mind at all. Each night he took care of James and then came to their bedroom and inspected her swollen feet and ankles and massaged them for better circulation as needed. She then often woke up with his big hand on the growing baby inside her. When Joanie moved or kicked he had one of those rare, almost imperceptible smiles of his. It made her so regret that she had not allowed him that closeness during her first pregnancy. And when his little girl was born… Louisa saw that that hidden, tender spot in Martin's heart had instantly sprouted a third, large, vigorous branch.

When Joanie was about one, Louisa realized that Martin was finally feeling comfortable in their marriage, more sure now of Louisa's commitment. That's when Martin, without a doubt unconsciously, had added a new mode to the range of looks directed at her. Scowling was reserved for others generally, as well as his entire repertoire of angry looks. Tender looks for her had been common for years when nobody else was present. Then came this new look, which she called his possessive look. It was so not-Martin that it took her a while to recognize it for what it was and then assign it its proper adjective. Martin simply had never dared feel possessive toward her. Even when they had made love he had always behaved as one surprised and grateful that she would allow him the privilege. The only show of possessiveness toward her she had ever detected before was in his non-admitted jealousy toward Danny Steele. But, as Martin's security increased, that possessive look had surfaced. It did not happen very often, but it did so on a regular basis. It was definitely there when he was horny (a state of being he never acknowledged), but also unexpectedly when he was looking at her at rare social gatherings when other men chatted with her, or simply at home when she did her babbling, she would turn around and see that unmistakable: "You're actually mine!" in his eyes. There was a time early in their relationship when she would have resented it and read it as cheeky, male domineering. But now, knowing Martin as well as she did, she actually looked forward to those looks as they were one of the clearest indications of his security in their marriage.

If she had ever told Martin about his possessive looks he would have fiercely denied them, and that in full honestly, as she was absolutely sure that Martin was completely unconscious about them. She was in fact very careful not to tell him, as she had come to look forward to those unguarded looks; she relished them in fact.

"Oh Martin," she sighed, "dear husband." She grabbed his pillow which smelled of him, hugged it tight and fell asleep thinking how lucky she was to have him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **O-perating, in More Ways than One**

 _December 19_

The school day was passing in a routine manner. Joanie seemed to have mostly reverted to her normal sweet and shy self, thanks also to the return of Melanie. Melanie was the daughter of Mrs. Holmes, the Portwenn primary school art and music teacher. She was a self-assured girl who had initially been… pushed into becoming Joanie's friend, both by her own mother and Louisa. Pushed because Joanie herself was too shy to go looking for friends, and because, even though the school was small, Melanie had simply failed to notice Joanie. At first Melanie had begrudged her mother this seeming imposition, but as Melanie had gotten to know Joanie better she had learned to appreciate her.

Joanie's natural inclination was to follow Melanie and accept Melanie's proposals. Yet Joanie had a mind of her own and did by no means follow blindly. Whenever Melanie proposed a project or a game, Joanie was sure to improve it, she had a lot of great ideas. Sometimes what the two little girls ended up doing had no resemblance to Melanie's original suggestion, though Melanie never noticed. For example, Melanie decided they should draw a large Cornish Christmas Bush for their art class team project. Joanie had been enthusiastic about the subject, as after all her mum always had a beautiful Cornish Bush as part of their home's Christmas decorations. However, Joanie had sweetly pointed out that it was better not to have just a flat drawing of a bush, but to cut two large round cardboard pieces and mount them together in the shape of the bush; then they could cover the ugly cardboard with a collage, planning each colored paper cutting first, without using the glue right away, but moving the pieces around carefully until they had achieved the best effect. This way they would have a three-dimensional collage that could be hung from the ceiling, like a real Cornish Bush. It would be a lot more eye catching than Melanie had originally envisioned. Once Melanie had understood what Joanie was suggesting, she had proclaimed that that had been exactly her idea from the start and had gladly become the enforcer of Joanie's methodology, making sure the other team members would not mess things up but do exactly as they were told. Melanie and Joanie were therefore very well matched, Melanie as queen, Joanie as _éminence grise_ : Melanie could tell anybody what to do, but without Joanie she would not have known quite what to tell. Had Louisa fully realized the dynamics of this relationship, she might have worried a lot less about Joanie's ability to interact.

This day then was quiet, with Melanie and Joanie working very hard at their project, which they had to finish in time for the Christmas pageant. The art for the pageant was a lot more fun than singing on stage, thought Joanie with an inner sigh.

"So are you singing or not at the pageant?" asked Melanie, seemingly reading her friend's thoughts.

"Mum has not asked again, so maybe not. Daddy said I don't have to," said Joanie softly.

"The doc says you don't have to, then you don't have to," pronounced Melanie.

"Doctor Ellingham is my daddy. You can call him my daddy or Doctor Ellingham, he doesn't like doc. "

"But he can't hear me, can he?"

"No, but I can," said Joanie sweetly, though looking at Melanie with a rather intense stare and raised eyebrows. Melanie knew better than to say anything wrong about the doc, as she could not afford to lose the brains of her operation.

"OK. If Doctor Ellingham says you don't have to sing, then you don't have to."

"Mum is the Head Teacher though… But maybe she changed her mind. That would be good. I could just sing all wrong of course, but Ellinghams don't cheat, daddy says."

"Right… How would singing all wrong help?"

"Because then they would not even want me to sing," replied Joanie cutting a piece of green paper.

Just that moment Louisa walked into the classroom and to the two little girls' table. She sat on one of the small stools.

"Joanie," said Louisa "I have an idea for the Christmas pageant. It is something you could do to participate without having to sing on stage."

"Oh mum!" exclaimed Joanie with a big smile. She spontaneously got up and threw her small arms around her mother's neck. Louisa suppressed a tear to see her little girl so happy and caressed her daughter's hair.

"So what do I do then?" asked Joanie.

"Well Joanie, we need a stage hand, someone to help Mrs. Holmes with handing out props, making sure everyone has what he or she needs, and especially opening and closing the curtains. You know that Al volunteered his work to install an electric switch that opens and closes the curtains?" and here a big-eyed Joanie nodded vigorously. "You will be the curtains operator. It's an important job, but I know you are good at remembering things and following directions, so I'm sure you can open and close the curtains at the right time. Not close it when the singers are still singing. "

Both Melanie and Joanie giggled at the thought of closing the curtains at the wrong time, especially during the king of the elves' solo. Oh well, this could be fun. Joanie was happy now.

"Will you tell daddy then?"

"You can tell him when he calls. I imagine he'll call tonight."

"OK, he'll be happy then, my daddy."

"Your daddy will be happy with anything that makes you happy, Joanie."

Joanie's eyes were shining. Melanie intervened: "Can I try the curtains too Mrs. Ellingham?"

"Not during the pageant, Melanie, you'll be too busy on stage to worry about doing the stage hands' work."

"I'm the curtains perator, " said Joanie solemnly.

"Yes you are! O-perator" smiled Louisa, truly glad that this solution was meeting with Joanie's approval.

"O-perator,"repeated Joanie. "Will anyone see me mum?"

"No, curtains operators stay behind the curtains, never in front. "

Joanie smiled broadly: this was perfect!

* * *

That afternoon the children went back to Ruth's cottage for tea, stopping here and there to admire the Christmas decorations on store fronts and private houses alike. It made the village look happy, thought Joanie. She particularly liked white blinking lights and red ribbons, while James paid more attention to a big wooden replica of a smiling Father Christmas. After some of this sight-seeing they were both cold and hungry and ran to Aunt Ruth's place.

Al was not at Ruth's this day. Ruth had already arranged scones and biscuits on the same platter as the day before, and the tea was steaming and ready to be poured. The children eagerly helped themselves.

"James, Joanie, I need to make some important phone calls," said the old lady after a while.

"Is it about your book on all the mad people in the village?" asked James.

"It's entitled Village Madness, and it's not only about Portwenn, but yes. They want to make a documentary from the book."

"Did it make you rich Aunt Ruth? Your book?"

"Well, I don't know about rich, but it is a non-fiction best seller. That means a lot of people buy the book."

"Good." commented James.

"So can I trust you two to look after yourselves for a time?" inquired the old lady.

"Of course Aunt Ruth!" James assured her enthusiastically, as this was an unforeseen opportunity to activate his plan. "But can we play with your computer?"

"You could use the laptop computer I suppose, but I don't think there are any games in it, James." said Ruth.

"Oh yes there are."

"How do you know?"

"Because there are games in your computer when you buy it. When dad bought his new laptop he spent a long time erasing all the games, except chess."

"I see. I think we need to look at these games together first."

Ruth had James bring her laptop to the kitchen table and opened it.

"Here you go James. Where are these games?"

"Let's see… you press this key and it takes you to all the icons…and you look for the games icon… and there it is, the green one!"

"I never saw this," mumbled Ruth clicking on the games icon. "So… only four games luckily. Chess, solitaire, scrabble and… puzzle pieces. "

"Dad had a lot more games."

"I'm sure he was ecstatic."

"What's static?" asked Joanie.

"Very happy" replied Ruth.

"No he wasn't" said James.

"I know, I was being sarcastic," answered Ruth.

"What's scastic?" asked Joanie.

At that moment Ruth was saved by the phone ringing in another room.

"Those games look harmless James, you can play."

"Thank you Aunt Ruth," said James, but already Ruth was out the door. James started speaking to his sister then in a whisper: "Joanie, now we get the train ticket and book the hotel for mum."

"Why, where is mum going?"

"To London silly, to be with dad. It's their second honeymoon."

"Why?"

"So they make up."

"You don't need that anymore 'cause I'm the curtains perator now."

"Joanie, how many times do I have to tell you: they did not scream like that because of you not singing in the pageant. It was something more important."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

"Like what?"

"Like…" James hesitated, as he did not want to tell Joanie what he had heard their parents screaming to each other "…like I don't know, but they need the second honeymoon, like Mikey's parents."

"What's Mikey got to do with it?"

"Nothing, never mind. I'm getting the ticket now. You keep a look-out and tell me if Aunt Ruth is coming back."

"You are not going to tell Aunt Ruth?"

"No, it's a surprise."

"OK." Joanie shrugged and went to stand by the kitchen door.

James was not sure how to find the website to buy the train ticket, but he typed "train tickets Bodmin" in the search bar and after a few tries on the results he recognized the website his dad had been using by its logo and colors.

"Here it is," he whispered. "Going from… Bodmin Parkway… to London… December 20… 17:21. There, now for the credit card… Joanie…JOANIE!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you see Aunt Ruth's handbag?"

"It's on the kitchen counter behind you, you silly."

"Ah, perfect."

James opened the handbag and took out Ruth's wallet. There were quite a few banknotes and plastic cards. James had seen his parents use credit cards enough times that he knew the VISA symbol. He picked one VISA card at random and entered Ruth's card information, just like he had done the day before with his father's. Except of course this was an unauthorized purchase… But it did go through. James went to the printer icon and clicked on that.

"Joanie!" he whispered "Go to Aunt Ruth's printer in the other room and take the paper I'm printing now."

"What is it?"

"Mum's ticket. But shhh! don't show it to Aunt Ruth, it's a surprise, remember?"

"Yeah." And she tiptoed into the other room. She came back rather quickly, triumphant.

"Here!" she whispered "Aunt Ruth is still in her bedroom talking on the phone."

"Good, now the hotel."

James typed "Savoy Hotel London" in the search bar as Martin had done the day before. He found the hotel website even faster than the one for the train tickets.

"OK, we should get the best room," said James.

"Yes, mum likes nice hotel rooms," approved Joanie.

"Mmm..." mumbled James "The ones that cost more are nicer, of course." He spent a few moments clicking here and there and looking at photos. Then he said: "Look at this room! It's huge! It's even got a living room with flowers. Mum likes flowers. I think we should take this one."

Joanie looked at the pictures of the room, or suite as it was, and smiled: "Prettyyyy!" she whispered "I like it. Yes, take this one, mum will like it a lot!"

James then chose the suite and again used Ruth's credit card. This time he did not print anything, as it was bad for the environment. He just copied the hotel confirmation number at the bottom of the train ticket sheet and wrote "Savoy." He folded the paper, put it in his pocket, closed the laptop and bit off another chunk of scone just in time for his grand aunt's return.

"Could I please have some more tea Aunt Ruth?" he asked.

"Sure. Did you play a game then?"

"Yes, a great game."

James couldn't know it, but clearly in the gene pool lottery of life he must have drawn some from Terry Glasson, or he could not have perpetrated this subterfuge with such aplomb. Except he far outdid his grandfather on his first heist, because the total bill for the train and the Churchill Suite at the Savoy Hotel was 1,311 pounds!

* * *

The conference room in the London government building was a bit bare, but did have all the necessary equipment, which was mostly a working computer attached to a working projector projecting onto a working screen. There was also a working microphone, but Martin did not need it. His steady, self-assured voice carried through the room without problems. He used a large number of well selected photos illustrating a variety of commonly misdiagnosed conditions and diseases. The young GPs were very attentive, some brighter than others, all in awe (and rather scared) of the legendary Cornwall GP who regularly out-diagnosed correctly even specialists. His practice was number one in the country in practically all areas except bedside manner. No other GP in the country knew half as much as Ellingham, or had equal intuitive powers or surgical skills. People were now coming from neighboring towns when they had a serious health problem which their local doctors could not figure out, and Martin was always eager to meet a medical challenge. The young GPs took copious notes and downloaded all Martin's PowerPoint slides and the information that went with each picture. Towards the end of the day Martin administered a test on the day's materials. He distributed the test and sat down. Louisa came to mind pretty quickly.

Sometimes Martin looked back to the very difficult, wrenchingly emotional two years between the time he and Louisa had become engaged the first time, and the time he was kidnapped by old Mrs. Winton. He had had a difficult life before that, but those two years had been such a roller coaster of despair and bliss, such a confused tangle of events and feelings that in retrospect he thought it was an utter miracle that he and Louisa had come out of it loving each other in a more mature way, more deeply bonded to each other. It was a testament to the depth not only of their sheer passion for each other, but above all to their mutual respect. If they had not had a profound respect for each other as individuals who shared and upheld the same core values, their relationship would never have worked in the long run, it would have become just sex and quarrels in the end, as it had been with Edith.

The greater peace of mind that had followed those turbulent two years had also allowed Martin to revisit his assumptions about his career. While being a small village GP was as unglamorous as vascular surgery was prestigious, it did provide the opportunity to help people in a very direct and substantial way. Martin thought of his most important task as being the first line of defense, the first health triage area that sick people would most frequently come across. Though surgeons saved lives in a highly skilled fashion, a village GP could do that for a lot more people than a surgeon by diagnosing and prescribing correctly. While Martin also saved lives in spectacular fashion from time to time thanks to his old surgery training, he thought that on the whole one saved more people just by helping prevent stroke or heart failure, by diagnosing cancer early, or helping people quit smoking. Once he had come to the conclusion that glamorous had only ever mattered to him because it had been mandated by his horrid parents, being a GP had become far more bearable. He had even been able to return to research, though in a very different way than before. He designed several studies on the effects of various treatments, collecting data from his own practice and others in Cornwall; he published a number of papers about diagnosing techniques; he taught classes at Truro hospital at least once a month. He felt, in other words, that by having accepted his career in Portwenn he had become a more useful health professional than when he had been dreaming a return to surgery.

He collected the tests on the first day's materials and stopped by to answer questions. Finally he was done and realized he was really hungry. He put away notes and papers in his briefcase, put his coat on and left.

After a simple but nourishing meal at a nearby restaurant, he went back to his hotel room. He wanted to review his notes for the next day, but he decided he would call home first.

"Hello Martin," said Louisa. "How was your class?"

"Mm… as you would expect, some good students, some not so much. Is everything well?"

"Yes, all is fine."

At that point Martin began to hear pressing young voices in the background. The children were asking to talk to him.

"Martin, I actually have to get back to the pots, I am cooking dinner right now. But you have two very eager young people here who want to talk to you."

"Right. I miss you."

"And we miss you too." Louisa passed the phone to James who was jumping up and down.

"Dad!" he said "How are you?"

"I'm fine James, and you?"

"OK. Where are you? "

"In my hotel room. "

"At the Savoy."

"Yes."

"Are you by yourself dad?"

"Yes."

"All by yourself? No company at all?"

"Yes, and no, no company at all."

"Are you sure dad?"

"Yes I'm sure! I have not suddenly developed Alzheimer's."

"What? You with Al Zeimer? A man?"

"JAMES! Pay attention boy: I said I am here by myself, I'm not with Al or anybody else, man or woman. Why do you keep asking whether I'm with somebody? "

"Oh, nothing…just curious is all."

"Did you have a good day?" Martin asked to change the subject.

"It was OK. We went to Aunt Ruth for tea 'cause mum needs to do a lot of paperwork. "

"Good of Ruth to help."

"She had scones and biscuits. "

"Or the usual empty calories. "

"They were really good dad, you should try a scone some time. "

"Mm… How is your sister? "

"Fine. She's right here and she really wants to talk to you. "

"Ok, put her on then James."

"Bye dad."

"Bye James."

Joanie took the phone with a huge smile and yelled: "DADDYYYYY!"

"Joanie, don't scream. You sound happy tonight," said Martin quite pleased.

"I'm curtains perator!"

"You are what? "

"Curtains perator!"

"I'm not sure what that means," said a baffled Martin.

"Silly daddy!" Joanie giggled. "It means you open and close the curtains. "

"What curtains? "

"The pageant curtains. It's a switch that Al made."

"I see. Do you mean you will be opening and closing the stage curtains at the Christmas pageant? "

"'xactly. And I have to stay behind the curtain. "

"You don't have to sing then?"

"No. Mum says this is a more important job. And nobody will see me."

"Mm… I always like to see you."

"OK."

James voice could be heard in the background now saying: "Supper is ready Joanie, mum says to come to the table! "

"I have to go daddy."

"Can you do me a favor Joanie and tell something to your mother for me?"

"Yes."

"Tell her: well done!"

"Well done. OK. Got to go, bye!"

"Bye Joanie."

Martin hung up, satisfied. It was indeed well done, he felt really proud of his wife, she seemed to have found a solution for Joanie which made their little girl happy.

Martin reviewed all his notes, modified a few items on the PowerPoint slides and added a few pictures. He also revised and adjusted the test questions the young GPs would have to answer tomorrow. Finally satisfied with the way he would cover the material, he switched off the laptop, stretched a bit and decided to call it a night. He got ready for bed in a few minutes, went under the blankets and switched off the light. Better get a good night sleep, as he had a lot to do tomorrow. The day would be long indeed, considering they would have dinner together as a class after the test. Martin didn't think much about having a pre-organized dinner with the young GPs. The food would probably be ghastly. However, it might be better than tonight's loneliness, especially considering that some of those young doctors were rather bright and had asked good questions throughout the day.

Martin turned around a few times and sighed. Though he was sleeping on a single bed and there was no huge empty space near him, still the lack of Louisa's warm, soft body was unmistakable. He had so grown used to having her close to him at night that he felt rather deprived at the moment. Louisa, the love of his life. She was truly wonderful. She was beautiful, and he did not mean just her appearance, she was a beautiful soul as well. She cared for people deeply, for the entire village in fact. She worked hard at her job to make her school the best it could possibly be. She was a loving mother, always thinking of little and big ways to make the children happy without spoiling them. She was a loving wife too. Her fiery temper he did not appreciate when she directed her anger at him, but… it was the source of much that was accomplished at the school, of several village improvements, and, when all was said and done, of several advancements in their relationship: if Louisa had not pushed him to come out of his shell he might never have taken those essential steps to get closer to her. What a smile she had... She could be as naturally lighthearted as it was equally impossible for him to be. To think that this wonderful woman loved him, was his wife, was his! He grabbed one of the many unnecessary pillows on his bed and hugged it tight. It did not smell like Louisa at all, rather like some fake, dead flower. Disgusting detergent smell. He threw it away, only to reach for it again a little later, as it was still better than hugging himself. Slowly he drifted off, eventually.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Mischief Managed**

 _December 20_

Sitting at the breakfast table James was finishing the last piece of his toast, trying to attract his mother's attention. She had been distracted, running around the kitchen, as she so often did when getting ready for school in the mornings. Finally she sat down and said:

"Well, I'd better eat something myself now or I might faint at work, without my knight in shining armor to save me."

"What knight in shining armor?" asked James.

"Your dad of course. I once fainted in the middle of the street and he ran to help me. I had not eaten anything that morning."

"Daddy is ALWAYS running around the village with his bag," observed Joanie.

"He is, isn't he? Always to the rescue. Sweet man," said Louisa smiling and buttering some toast since the sweet man wasn't there to complain about it.

"Mum," said James, "I think the time has come for your surprise. "

"You have a surprise for me James? How nice of you. What is it? "

"It's from dad," said James while producing a sheet of paper which he unfolded on the table.

Louisa picked it up and stared at it for a while. Finally with eyes wide she asked incredulously: "What, your father left this ticket and Savoy hotel confirmation number to surprise me this morning? "

"Yes! Second honeymoon!" replied James with a big smile, nodding.

"Second honeymoon?! Well, it is a surprise: your dad doesn't do surprises."

"Maybe he wanted to make up with you," said James.

"Ah, and what would you know about that?"

"Mum, I'm not deaf, you two were having a row the other day."

"James I'm sorry, very sorry you had to hear us yelling at each other. We shouldn't have done that. At least we were in the consulting room, I hope you did not hear too much?"

"Mmm… just angry screaming is all."

"Good. But this is sweet of your daddy," marveled Louisa. "Still, we have a lot to do at school. I'll have to think about it. This ticket is for this afternoon. Not much notice."

"Mum," intervened Joanie with her sweet little voice, "daddy will be very sad if you don't go."

"He's all by himself… he says," added James, momentarily picturing an imaginary woman called Edith locked in the hotel room en suite, and mum throwing things and banging on the door. He shuddered and chased that thought away quickly.

Louisa kept staring at the ticket and shaking her head.

"Oh Martin!" she sighed "You didn't need to do this. Which makes it double sweet, come to think of it. "

At that moment Morwenna came in from the reception room.

"Good morning!"

"You are here early," said Louisa, "when you should be taking the day off. "

"Oh no, the doc left me a long list of items to do, mostly entering data in his patients' database. But Louisa, just before I left yesterday the courier came and brought a special delivery package for you, I forgot to tell you. " Morwenna gave Louisa a small package.

"Really? Where is it from?" asked Louisa.

"Don't know where it's from, but it's the doc's I'm sure."

"Another surprise from Martin?!" said Louisa quite astonished. "This is more surprises from Martin in five minutes than the whole ten years before! Let's open it then."

Morwenna then shook her head vigorously, to say NO, and she mouthed without sound: "Other room," while indicating the direction of the consulting room with one hand and the kids with the other.

"Oh…" said Louisa, with a sly smirk on her face, "I'll be back in a minute children, then we run to school."

Even though James did not know what was in the package, a present is a present, and he concluded, correctly, that when a knight in shining armor gives you two surprise presents in five minutes you can't say no. So James acted quickly to put the last piece of his plan into action. He went straight to Louisa's purse, took out her mobile, touched the message icon and wrote the following: " _I will be at Savoy tonight_ " and sent it to MyMartin in Louisa's digital address book. MyMartin replied immediately: " _What? You are coming here tonight?_ "

" _Surprise! Second honey moon_ " typed James, and added a smiley, or rather kissing little face.

" _I love you Louisa, I look forward to it. Can you switch us to a bigger room? I have to start class now and I'm silencing my mobile,_ " wrote MyMartin.

" _Already done! I love you too_."

MyMartin sent back a little face with a very big smile and a winking eye. Then James erased the entire thread, all messages from MyMartin disappeared. Then he went to the settings menu… and the plan was complete.

Louisa in the meantime had stepped into Martin's consulting room and closed the door. Morwenna's gesticulating had convinced her that the item in the package was not meant for the children's eyes. She cut the tape sealing the box and extracted a smaller, very elegant white and silver box. She recognized immediately which company it was coming from. "How did he know?" she thought "Oh, Morwenna!" She opened the box and squealed! The red nightgown! How on Earth had Morwenna had the gall to tell Martin to buy this particular item? How strange that he had decided to go for it! But never mind, concluded Louisa, this was a gift definitely best inaugurated at a luxury hotel room with no children to worry about. No wonder he had sent her the train ticket and room confirmation code, the whole thing put together was irresistible. It didn't seem like Martin's idea, but Morwenna may have suggested it and, somehow, he went for it. Well, of course she had to go to London tonight. Then she saw a small white and silver card spilling out of the opened package. She picked it up and read: "Louisa, please forgive me. Love, Martin." She hugged the small card to her bosom. "Oh, you strange, unbelievable man!" she thought, completely won over by now. She made a quick, mental review of what needed to be done: Mrs. Holmes could take over the last few preparations for the pageant, and she would ask Ruth whether the kids could spend the night at her cottage. Another possibility was the B&B with Al or, failing that, she could call their occasional childminder Janice. She would come home at midday to prepare a small bag, containing the few necessities and especially one precious red item… Yes it could definitely be arranged. "Oh Martin! I promise you we'll never forget this night!" she decided rather passionately.

She came back into the kitchen to find the children with their coats on, ready to go to school. And with very expectant faces. She beamed at them.

"I'll be with daddy tonight then."

"Yeah!" screamed James happily, ran to his mum and gave her a high five. Joanie just beamed back.

"Dad sent a message that he is silencing his mobile while he teaches his class. I wrote you were going tonight and he was very happy."

"James you didn't even know I was going!"

"C'mon mum! Two surprises like that and you are not even going?"

"James… You know your mother well my little man, don't you?"

James smiled sheepishly and spontaneously hugged his mum and said: "I love you mum."

Louisa ruffled his hair and leaned down to plant a kiss on his forehead. She flittingly thought: "James' declarations of love generally indicate he got himself into some trouble," but as she had to run to school and accomplish a lot before her departure this suspicion was quickly forgotten.

All three Ellinghams walked to school much, much happier than the other day.

* * *

Ruth was very surprised to hear about Martin's second honeymoon idea and concluded someone must have suggested it to him. Good of him to go for it, so uncharacteristic. Ruth proposed that they would all stay at the B&B together, as it would be easier for all concerned to keep an eye on the children, make dinner and get them to go to bed at their usual hour, more or less. There would be some guests at the B&B in a few days, but there were none at the moment.

Louisa thought this was the perfect solution and she thanked Ruth profusely. At midday she went home and prepared her own travel bag as well as a small bag for the children with their pajamas, toothbrushes, a change of clothes and a book each. Before leaving she poked her head into the reception room to thank Morwenna, but the young woman was not there, probably out to lunch. Maybe Louisa would have time to buy a small present for Morwenna in London.

The last item to arrange was a taxi to the Bodmin station. Once that was also done, Louisa spent a considerable amount of time going over all the pageant details with Mrs. Holmes. Finally Louisa went to say goodbye to the children and to recommend them to be well behaved. Then she was in the taxi and off to London.

Sitting in the train, looking out the window, Louisa's thoughts finally reverted to James. She wondered whether he was in some sort of pickle, as he had an uncanny ability to do that, especially by playing practical jokes on just about everyone except Martin and Ruth, who were not amused. One of James' favorites for his mum was changing all her mobile settings, including her voice mail answering message which became quite silly at regular intervals. James was brazenly taking advantage of the fact that Louisa was not a very savvy smartphone user and that she could never manage not to laugh at his jokes. Once he had even switched her mobile language to Russian, which then had taken even James a long time to undo. But he was an adorable, really smart boy, who abounded in self-esteem thanks to his loving parents. His self-confidence, however, sometimes bordered on a propensity for thinking himself infallible, and a willingness to make things go the way he considered to be "right," as James himself would put it. Meaning, thought Louisa, my James has his mother's bad habit to assume too much… They would have to help James distinguish between being self-confident and being right, because he clearly did not know the difference very well. But he was only nine, he would learn.

Then Louisa turned her thoughts to Martin and their imminent rendezvous. She smiled to herself. This was going to be a good, good night, she could feel it in her bones. She took out her mobile to see whether Martin was reachable at this point, and… Oh no!... No, this definitely was not Russian. No alphabet there at all. Arabic? JAMES!

* * *

That night at the farm Bert and Al made dinner. It was definitely not optimal nutritional value, but was delicious: fish and chips, made at home, with very fresh fish. The children seldom ate any fried foods, thus for them this was a real treat.

At the end of the meal Al proposed some games. First they played scrabble junior, then snakes and ladders. Bert fell asleep on the couch and snored loudly, so they played a game about who could wake him up first by flying paper airplanes at him. It took many attempts, but finally one of James' planes landed on Bert's face. He sneezed and jumped up (still sitting down) yelling: "No, I didn't do it, I swear I didn't!" They all looked at each other and laughed, including Ruth. Who knows what Bert had been dreaming!

A little after the children's customary bedtime, when Ruth was just beginning to steer the children to bed, Al received a text message from an unknown number: " _This is Louisa. Using a nice lady's mobile, ask James why. Train coming into London now. All well_?"

Al replied: " _All well, the kids are fine. Have fun._ "

Louisa: " _Thank you, goodnight to all._ "

Al: " _GOOOOD night, to you and the doc…_ "

Louisa replied with a smirking emoticon.

"All right," said Al rubbing his hands, "now to bed, children. What have you done to your mum's mobile James? She is traveling, so that's not nice."

"Oh, mum sent you a text did she?" answered James

"She had to borrow someone else's mobile though," said Al shaking his finger at James

"See, no problem then, and later she can use dad's mobile."

"Remind me never to leave my mobile anywhere near you," mumbled Al.

James and especially Joanie were getting quite sleepy. Al got them to brush their teeth and put on their pajamas. He had prepared two twin beds in one room so they would be together.

"I wonder whether mum and dad are going to be happy on their second honeymoon," said James.

Al smiled and shook his head.

"I'm sure they'll have a great time James. But why second honeymoon, if that's what it is? Louisa call it that?"

"Mmm…no, I did, 'cause Mikey's parents were going to divorce but then they went on a second honeymoon and they didn't divorce anymore."

"But… the doc and Louisa just had an argument the other day, that's all, they weren't going to divorce."

"How do you know Al?"

"Well James, I think they are quite happy together these days."

"I think it was good to send them on a second honeymoon. "

"Send them? Who sent them?" Al was quite puzzled now.

"No, I mean, they went," said James in a hasty manner that didn't fool Al for a moment. Al just had too much experience in the field of half truths to be fooled.

"James. Let's suppose a boy thinks his parents are about to divorce, do you think he would try to send them… on a second honeymoon? "

"Yes," mumbled Joanie with her eyes already closed and her book dropping from her hands.

"He might…" said James tentatively. Al was a good mate, he could be trusted, couldn't he?

"And how would... say… a nine year old boy manage that?"

"He might buy a train ticket and book a hotel with the computer. "

"If he knew how," said Al perplexed.

"He would know if his dad had shown him how."

"Right… but… how would he pay for it?"

"He would use… a credit card?..."

"But…" a puzzled Al scratched the back of his head, "nine year old boys don't have credit cards."

"But their aunts do, lots of 'em."

Al sat there frozen for a moment. James had used Ruth's credit card to book a second honeymoon for his parents? It was rather shocking, and amazing that he would be able to do that much at nine years of age.

Al cleared his voice and said: "But would the boy know that using his aunt's card without asking her is stealing? "

"Not stealing really, and the aunt had LOTS of money in her wallet! And she sells LOTS of that _Village Madness_ ," said James spreading his arms wide.

"But that's not the point James. She has money, but I'm guessing a fancy hotel room in London costs LOTS. The point is: stealing is stealing."

"Even to get your parents to make up? "

Al was silent for a while then he said: "I'll tell you a story James. When you were a small baby my da, Bert, had a restaurant near the surgery. He needed money one day, for the restaurant, and he borrowed one thousand pounds from loan sharks."

"What are loan sharks?" asked James.

"Bad people. They lend you some money and the next day they want it back with interest. That means they want a lot more money back than what they gave you."

"That's not fair!"

"No it's not. Never go to a loan shark James."

"No, I'm not stupid, I won't."

"Good. So my dad had to pay these bad men back see? They were threatening him. And then I found out."

"Did you send them away Al? You punched them?"

"No. I stole 700 pounds from Ruth."

"What?! You stole from Aunt Ruth?"

"Yeah, and right ashamed I am about that, even now. I did it for my dad, but that didn't make it right though. "

"What did Aunt Ruth say?"

"Well… she wasn't happy about it, but she's a great lady. She forgave me and had me work for her to pay her back."

"And your dad? Did he pay the sharks back?"

"We paid back the thousand, but not all the interest. Joe Penhale sent them away. It's illegal to do what they do."

"Good for Joe!"

"Yeah… well I think a boy who has stolen money from his aunt, though for a good reason, should tell her and ask for forgiveness. "

"Tell her? But she doesn't even know. "

"That's not the point is it? It's stealing and it's a lie. And she will find out. So that boy is better off telling her before she does."

James stared at Al for a long time. Stealing and lie were big, bad words. In his mind the worthiness of his cause had fully justified his actions, but to hear his actions called with such words made him doubt himself for the first time. While he still did not fully understand the gravity of what he had done, he thought that probably he should tell Aunt Ruth. But how? She might actually get angry.

"But how would a boy tell his aunt, Al?"

"Just say it."

James shook his head. "No," he said, "I don't know how."

"You're ashamed? "

"A bit scared of her, actually. "

"She'd be amused to hear you say that, actually. Well, you could write her a letter. "

"I have never written a letter, except to Father Christmas. "

"Well, considering the expense, it would be just like writing to Father Christmas. Just write what you did and why, ask her what you can do to be forgiven. "

"OK. I'll write her a letter tomorrow then. Mum and dad will be back in time for the Christmas pageant, so their second honeymoon will be over anyway. "

"Good. You do that James. Be a man about it."

James liked that.

"Yes Al," he said, "I'll be a man about it."

Al ruffled his hair, said goodnight, tucked in Joanie who was fast asleep, and went downstairs shaking his head.

"This one is smarter than all of 'em Ellinghams combine," thought Al, admiring James' daring and cunning despite himself.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **The Second Honeymoon**

 _December 20, night_

It had been raining all day and the streets of London were very wet. The multicolored city lights reflected off the wet pavement and small pools of water everywhere. Bright Christmas decorations were in all the illuminated shop windows, and hanging here and there on and around public structures, while some carol singing spilled out of a local pub. Martin walked briskly as he did not have an umbrella. He was born in London and spent most of his life here. The feel of Christmas in a rainy London was familiar enough to be an afterthought, it had a feel of home. Yet, as he made his way quickly to the Savoy Hotel, he realized it was the feel of a place that he associated with his parents and a professional life far behind him that had given him a lot of satisfaction but no happiness. It was a feel of the past, now closed to him. His new home was the place where his children were, waiting for him, and Louisa of course. Though she was here now and, even after all the years together, he felt his heart beat a little faster at the thought he was about to see her. It was past 10:30 pm already, but he felt quite sure she was up waiting for him, and he was eager to be with her.

He quickly went to the reception desk for his new room key. The concierge assured him all his belongings had been moved to the Winston Churchill Personality River View Suite, and confirmed Mrs. Ellingham had arrived less than an hour earlier. Martin took the elevator upstairs. The Winston Churchill Personality River View Suite at the Savoy!? Must cost a fortune. He was not too surprised though about Louisa's decision to indulge for once. They did not have many opportunities to spend a night quietly by themselves, and over the years they had made it a habit to kiss and make up in style whenever possible. It was usually a gift from Martin to Louisa, but occasionally it was her initiative, like tonight, or so he believed. Her coming all the way to London on his last night here, and booking the Churchill suite, trumped his gift of the red nightgown. But no matter, they would enjoy that another time. He was surprised he felt excited enough that all the work of the day teaching the young GPs was not making him feel tired at all.

Louisa had been stunned by the Churchill suite. Elegant didn't begin to describe it. It was luxury pure and simple. The living room was furnished in a traditional, comfortable style, every piece of furniture in soft creamy colors, shining wood floors, intricate design Persian carpets, real paintings on the walls, a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the coffee table, a breakfast table overlooking the Thames, with the old breathtaking view of city lights and night time bustle. She refused to consider how much Martin had decided to spend on this. True they'd had their worst row in some time, but Martin knew he did not need to do something as extravagant as this to make up. So it was an extraordinary gift. Martin must obviously feel really contrite about bringing up her first pregnancy, though he had no cause as that had been a bad misunderstanding and mostly on her part. She must make Martin understand once and for all that she deeply regretted both the six months he had been completely excluded from her first pregnancy, and the following three months he had been mostly excluded. She quickly prepared herself for the night and wore the red nightgown. Looking at herself in the mirror she was pleased by the effect, it was an excellent fit.

Martin slipped the plastic key card in and managed to make it work on his second try. The front room of their suite was illuminated only by the light spilling in from the bedroom and a small table lamp. Martin took off his wet coat and hung it up on a coat-rack by the door. Almost at the same time he slipped off his wet shoes and socks: the floor appeared immaculately clean and he did not want to leave muddy footprints.

He raised his eyes and saw Louisa walk in from the bedroom. He stood there breathless for a moment. He had thought she would look nice in the red nightgown, but this definitely surpassed his expectations. What you could see of her soft, creamy white skin was splendidly set off by the scarlet lace, and what you could not see was very seductively outlined. And despite the suggestiveness of the garment she looked elegant in it as well. It was like when he had seen her in her bridal gown at the door of the church the day they married: he was stunned. How appropriate for a second honeymoon. Though he knew the forms of that dear body by heart, he found her look so tantalizing that he could only manage a husky: "Oh, Louisa… " and started to move forward.

Completely satisfied by the effect she had on him, Louisa said with a sly little smile: "No Martin, take off some of those wet clothes first."

While these few words were spoken he did not take his eyes off her for a single moment, he continued staring, and so did she, while he was shedding and distractedly throwing his jacket on the coat rack without turning - he missed. Then he undid his tie, which ended on the carpet as well. He made again as if to walk toward her, but she softly said: "More." He obediently took off his shirt and vest, and his stare predictably became that shade of possessive she so anticipated.

Then he could not wait any more and took the few steps that separated him from her, took her in his arms and kissed her.

"I love you," he whispered to her.

"I love you too Martin," Louisa told him tenderly, detaching herself from him enough to be able to see his face. "Let's make it clear once and for all Martin: I deeply regret I did not tell you I was expecting James a lot earlier than I did. I regret that at the time I did not see things as they really were, and I did not allow you to share prenatal parenthood."

"Louisa… you do not need to apologize, I know... and I'm sorry I brought it up." But Martin had a hard time talking right then, he was so taken by her body tight against his, so warm and soft and beautiful. He kissed her again and she responded. Then without thinking he lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom and to the bed, like a proper groom. She laughed, especially when he staggered at the end and they both fell on the bed. Then she pulled him on top of herself and whispered: "This nightgown seems to be doing its job."

"Oh Louisa, you know you always look beautiful to me, but this… you are so... it's so…beautiful…"

He made love to her then, and any misunderstandings and distance that had been between them were swept away. Later they were quiet, his head resting on her chest, her fingers raking through his short hair rather possessively. He sighed contented, happy, and dozed off, and she considered that this night, as she had hoped, was as binding a marriage contract as anyone could ever sign.

It was good for James that his parents were so enthralled that they did not exchange very many words at all that night, except for the ones that were part of their love-making. And so it was that that night James' mischief was not divined. That would have to wait another day.

* * *

 _December 21, morning and afternoon_

When they woke up in the morning they spent some time just happily cuddling.

"Did Joanie give you my message?" asked Martin.

"What message?"

"Well done."

"Ah, that. She did say "well done mum!" when she came to the dinner table the other night, but not what it was about. I thought she meant the food I was serving out and was pleased. Was that your message then?" asked Louisa.

"Yes. I said well done to finding such a good solution for Joanie, for making her curtains... perator," answered Martin.

"Yes, I racked my brains thinking about what she might do to participate in the pageant without being seen, and it finally came to mind she could be a stage hand. We really did not need one, but Joanie seems really happy with operating the curtains' switch."

"I can imagine that. Louisa… Can we agree that we will take our cue from the children in the future? If there is anything troubling them and one of us recognizes there is a problem… we decide how to proceed together please, even if it is a school matter? Don't other fathers, parents, want to be involved in their children's schooling? Why shouldn't I?"

Louisa was silent, gently and absently caressing Martin side while she thought about what he had just said.

"You are right Martin. Parents come talk to me about all aspects of their children's schooling all the time. You don't come to the school to do it because we do it at home. That confuses things a bit, with my role as Head Teacher and my role as mother."

"Yes... The issue of the children goes beyond school though. Let's just agree we make ALL decisions about the children together. Isn't that better, both from the point of view of mother and Head Teacher?"

"Martin, when did you get to be so wise? Yes, agreed, ALL decisions together." She was watching him intently, and then suddenly she jumped up and said: "Don't we need to get train tickets? We need to get back in time for the pageant."

"I'll do it," said Martin "and I'll order a full English breakfast from room service. If we eat that we can skip lunch."

"Why do you want to skip lunch?" said Louisa reluctantly starting to get out of bed.

"So there is more time for us, here," Martin answered in a tender tone.

Louisa was still wearing the now much crumpled red nightgown, had her hair all disheveled and tousled, no make up and seemed somewhat bleary eyed. It gave her a younger, girly look, which reminded Martin a lot of when he first knew her and would bump into her in the streets of Portwenn, either accidentally or on purpose. She looked absolutely captivating. Martin could not resist. He reached out and pulled her to himself, and started making love to her all over again. She forgot all about train tickets.

Later they ate that big English breakfast both overjoyed and comfortable with each other, without saying much, but looking at each other a lot, both with that rather possessive look in their eyes.

"You know," said Martin sipping another cup of tea, "this second honeymoon is so much better than the first."

She laughed. "You can say that! Thanks love for organizing this, it's been such a wonderful surprise. "

He looked at her puzzled.

"I didn't organize anything… other than ordering your red nightgown, that is."

"You didn't organize this?"

"No. I thought you had. You sent a message about it."

"But I didn't."

They stared at each other totally confused now. Martin got up, took his mobile and retrieved the messages.

"Here it is, see? " _Surprise! Second honey moon!_ " spelled as two words."

Louisa took the mobile and stared at the messages.

"Martin, I didn't write this. Someone used my mobile... James, of course!"

But that was even more puzzling.

"That makes no sense. James could not have organized this whole thing," said Martin.

"Well someone did, and that someone used my mobile. And my mobile now is in Arabic. I think."

"What?"

"Yep, that's James all over. The Arabic part of this mystery, I mean. The message to you I don't know. Wait, when did you receive it?"

"Just before starting class, a little before 8:00," answered Martin.

"So James for sure, we were still at home then. But, how could James arrange all this?"

"And especially, who is paying for all this? It's not cheap I'm sure," observed Martin, quite bewildered by this turn of events.

"At least we can find that out immediately," replied Louisa. She went to the room telephone and called the reception.

"This is Mrs. Ellingham in the Churchill Suite. I have a somewhat odd question. Someone paid for our room as a present, but my husband and I do not know whom we have to thank for it… Yes, if you could check your records please…" Louisa waited a little while, then exclaimed: "Really? Are you sure? Dr. Ruth Ellingham? Well, thanks," and she hung up.

"Ruth?!" said Martin.

"A Christmas present?" wondered Louisa.

"No, this is not like Ruth at all," said Martin. "Would Ruth have enlisted James' help to surprise us? Possible, but still very unlike Ruth. And I so keep an eye on her, she's not in the least senile, her cognitive powers so far are intact."

"And it doesn't take a doctor to see that either. She's as sharp as ever," commented Louisa. "If we exclude Ruth, and we do know this suite was paid with her credit card…"

"It seems to leave only one possibility," continued Martin shaking his head, "someone else used her card. But who would be foolish enough to do something like that, just to give _us_ , the two of us, a second honeymoon?"

"Which is superb," said Louisa looking at her husband lovingly.

"Yes, that it is," he agreed taking her hand into his much larger one and giving it an affectionate squeeze.

They looked at each other and there seemed to be only one possible answer to this puzzle.

"Would James have had access to Ruth's credit card?" asked Martin.

"Possibly. The children were at Ruth's for tea two afternoons in a row," answered Louisa. "But how would James even know how to buy train tickets or book a hotel online? How did he know it was the Savoy?"

Martin looked at his wife rather sheepishly.

"I'm afraid that's my fault. When I was making my reservations the other day James was worried I would miss seeing him play the king of the elves in the Christmas pageant. So I reassured him and thought to distract him by letting him help me. He typed in the credit card numbers and my name, so he saw how it's done."

"And we both know James does not need to be shown anything twice before he has memorized it all," concluded Louisa shaking her head.

They were silent for a while. Then, in a very serious and sad voice Martin said: "If so Louisa James is a thief, and one who can employ a considerable amount of subterfuge. This cannot stand. Our son cannot be a thief like… like…"

"Like my father," sighed Louisa rather disconsolately. "But James is just a child Martin, still learning right from wrong. Obviously he must have thought this would please us."

Martin cleared his voice sending his wife a very fond look: "It certainly did please me."

She favored him with a rather suggestive look.

"OK, forget that for a minute," said Martin, "…we must make it clear to James this can't be done. There will have to be some sort of punishment. And we have to pay back Ruth of course. I wonder how much this amazing suite costs. Shouldn't we call Ruth?"

Before Louisa could answer, Martin's mobile rang. Martin picked it up and said a little perplexed: "It's Al Large."

"Ellingham."

"Doc, it's me, Al."

"Yes."

"I hope I'm not calling too early. "

"Not at all."

"Doc… have you by any chance begun to wonder how Louisa got sent to London to… be with you last night?"

"Yes! Wait, I'll put you on speaker so Louisa can hear you as well… Do you know anything about this… this mystery?"

"Well… What do you think happened Doc?"

"We think somehow James, or James and Ruth, arranged this… second honeymoon for us. But it doesn't sound at all like Ruth, so it's more probable James did it, using Ruth's credit card, incredible though it seems. I was about to call Ruth."

'Yeah doc, James did it."

"He told you?"

"In a way, yes. Doc… you shouldn't call Ruth."

"Why ever not?"

"'Cause James is going to confess to her, in a letter… We agreed this morning I would deliver it to Ruth. He's a bit scared of her."

"As he should be," said Martin sternly.

"Yeah, but… don't call Ruth, doc. Give James a chance to be the one to tell her… I think it will be hard for him to do it but it's… his own move toward facing his responsibility."

Louisa intervened: "I see your point Al. You mean if James can muster the courage to confess to Ruth he should have the opportunity to do so, instead of letting Ruth find out from a third party. At least he'd be willingly admitting to what he has done. I agree. Do you Martin?"

Martin was silent for a while and then said: "You are being very good to James Al, I'm not sure he deserves it."

"Doc, everyone deserves a break… especially at nine years of age. I hope you don't mind my telling James to be a man about it, and he knew I meant confessing to Ruth."

Martin hesitated as he felt Ruth had a right to be apprised of the situation. Then he concluded that if she found out just a few hours later it would not make that much of a difference in the end.

"Fine," said Martin. "I won't call Ruth. We'll talk to her tonight. James had better be done with this letter before we see Ruth though. I will not pretend with her that nothing has happened."

"No, of course not," replied Al. "James is going to give me his letter before the pageant, he promised. I believe him."

"Al…" Martin hesitated "Why did James do such a thing? I really don't understand that, it seems such an outlandish thing to do. Did he tell you why?"

This time it was Al who was silent for a time. Finally he said: "That's probably another confession, to you and Louisa. I won't speak for James, let him tell you, though I have a pretty good idea what moved him."

"Fine then. Thank you Al."

"Yes, thanks Al," said Louisa "you are being a very good friend."

"It's OK Louisa, glad to help, but James… he's a little too smart for his own good, you know? You need to pay attention I think."

"Yes, yes we will. Thanks again," concluded Louisa. They hung up.

Martin sighed. "How much will this cost?" he asked indicating the suite with a broad gesture of his hand.

"It will be a load of money I'm sure. But worth it, every penny. I think we should do this at least once a year, on our anniversary," said Louisa.

"Yes. Our anniversary is in less than a year though."

"Better yet," she said, with another suggestive look.

Martin made a quick calculation. If they were going to spend a fortune on this suite, they might as well continue to enjoy it, it had been such an unforeseen, totally enthralling experience so far. Nothing could be done about James' mischief now anyway.

"We can talk about this more on the train," said Martin. "Packing our few items will take just a few minutes. So, Mrs. Ellingham... what else is on your mind?"

She just grinned.

* * *

Luckily there were quite a few free seats on the train. Martin read the paper, but his mind kept going back to James' imbroglio. It was very disconcerting that his son, the son of very honest parents, could display such guile and become a thief. True he was still a child, but he thought James should have known enough not to steal. To Martin's way of thinking there were only two possible excuses. First, credit card money was very insubstantial, and to a child stealing it was probably equally insubstantial, as it could not be seen or touched, it was abstract and existed only as numbers in a computer. Martin hoped that James was incapable of stealing anything as concrete as banknotes or coins, and in fact he never had. The second, and probably most important excuse, was not so much an excuse as an explanation. James must have had a very powerful motive for elaborating such a complex scheme. Why had James done this? This question puzzled Martin tremendously, but no answer seemed adequate. Obviously they lacked information.

"Louisa, why do you think James did all this? It could not be just one of his practical jokes, if only because he knows I abhor them. Why send us on a second honeymoon? Does he even know what it is, or what one does on such a trip?"

"Good God Martin, I hope not! I certainly don't want to explain to him what we've been doing!"

"Oh no," answered Martin horrified at the thought. "It's all quite a puzzle."

"We need to give James a chance to explain Martin, event though there is really no excuse for stealing."

"Of course, and I do need to know, to understand, this is too strange for words."

"Children do the most incredible things Martin. Day by day I never stop being amazed by what they come up with, or to what extent they are capable of misunderstanding adults and their behaviors. How they invariably interpret everything that happens as revolving around themselves. Maybe that's what happened here, James misunderstood something."

"Perhaps," said Martin dubiously, but with a small glimmer of hope.

"James did tell me he heard us screaming at each other," said Louisa after a while.

"He did?" exclaimed Martin a little startled. "Morwenna heard us too. We should never yell at each other like that, and really never with the children within earshot. That's inexcusable. We're idiots!"

Louisa actually smiled.

"Amazing. In all these years I have heard you call an idiot just about everyone in Portwenn, except me and yourself. This is a first."

"Mmm…it was idiotic. I feel really stupid about losing my patience and rehashing old hurts like that. James has to make amends, no question, but so do we."

"Agreed" said Louisa quietly. Martin never ceased to amaze her: he was proposing to eat some humble pie. Extraordinary indeed. "Martin… I would like for you to be the one to speak to James about what he has done."

"Really?"

"Yes. I trust you to handle it. Just try to remember he is only nine."

Martin was very touched by Louisa's faith in him. "Very well then," he said. "I'll do it, though I'm not sure yet just what I should say to him."

"You'll know when it's time."

"What a change a night of renewed vows can make," thought Martin and went back to his paper much comforted despite the bitter task ahead.

Louisa leaned back and closed her eyes. Their second honeymoon had been wonderful, but they had not slept that much. She dozed off, dreaming contentedly, despite her son's mischief, or thanks to it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **Family Portrait**

 _December 21, evening_

Martin and Louisa arrived at Portwenn's town hall just a few minutes before the pageant was due to begin. As they walked into the large hall where the stage and chairs had been set out, Martin began immediately to search for Ruth, taking advantage of the fact that he could see above most people's heads. He found her quickly and, steering Louisa by the elbow to go with him, he equally quickly reached Ruth. The old lady was sitting on a chair near the front of the seating arrangements, but a bit to the side. She was holding a sheet of paper in her hand with a bemused and perplexed expression.

"Ruth!" called Martin coming closer and taking the seat next to his aunt, with Louisa right behind. "We need to talk."

"Yes," said Ruth, "but I think you need to read this first. I imagine you are almost as much in the dark as I was till a few minutes ago when Al played postman and delivered this letter to me."

Ruth handed the letter to Martin who held it up so that it would be visible to Louisa as well. They both recognized James' childish yet neat handwriting. They both read the following:

" _Dear Aunt Ruth:_

 _I talked to Al last night and he said I need to tell you what I did. I have to be a man about it. Al said he did it too to help his dad and you forgave him, so I hope you forgive me too, though Al says what I did is bad. But don't be angry with Joanie please. She helped only a little, I just told her it was a surprise for mum and dad and she does what I tell her (not always). Joanie is not guilty it was me._

 _Mum and dad needed to go on a second honey moon like Mikey's parents. I did not play a game on your computer, I got a train ticket for mum and booked a big room (really pretty, with flowers and all like mum likes). I used one of your plastic cards V.I.S.A. like dad used but with your name on it. The blue one. Al says it's like stealing money and that it's A LOT. Maybe that's not true, but if it is true I am sorry and I will work for you like Al did to pay you back. You tell me what you want me to do and I will do it. You don't need to write a letter you can just tell me. Please don't be angry, mum and dad will be happy now I hope._

 _Happy Christmas!_

 _Your grand-nephew_

 _James Henry Ellingham_

Martin and Louisa finished reading at about the same time and were momentarily silent, taking it all in.

"This admits to the deed," said Martin, "but still does not explain why, not really. Why did he think he needed to send us on a second honeymoon? "

"Speaking as someone who has just found out there was anything amiss…"

"Oh Ruth," interjected Martin quickly, "we will pay you back. "

Ruth ignored him and continued: "… I would say the boy must have been really upset about something. He did say he heard you arguing loudly the other day. Something you said perhaps?" the old lady asked raising an eyebrow.

"The door was closed Ruth," said Louisa, "and I did ask James. He said he only heard angry voices. With the door closed I think it would have been difficult to make out what we were saying."

"James heard something falling or braking as well" said Ruth mildly.

"Yes, I bumped into some supplies and broke a vial" said Martin distractedly, without seeing the implications.

"In any case the boy thought it best to send you on a second honeymoon" Ruth continued. "I think he shows considerable foresight for such a young fellow, wouldn't you say? "

"A considerable amount of trickery I would say!" answered Martin quite cross. He did not think Ruth's wry humor was appropriate at the moment.

"The question is Martin, and Louisa, was the boy correct that this trip would be salutary?"

Martin blushed, which was an answer as clear as Louisa's sparkling eyes and pronouncement: "It was wonderful Ruth, one of the best times Martin and I have ever had together! We'll do it again. "

"Well then, James' perception that you two needed a little time-out together was accurate, and it seems unfair to punish him too hard for it."

"But he did steal! He must understand this cannot stand!" protested Martin.

"We will pay you back Ruth," added Louisa.

"Oh, I never know what to give you two for Christmas," shrugged Ruth. "I might as well give you this, something that you really enjoyed, apparently… " with a knowing little smile. " _Village Madness_ is bringing in a fair amount after all."

"You say that because you have not seen the bill yet!" said Martin rather nonplussed by his aunt's nonchalance.

"Why, how much is it?" asked Ruth.

With an embarrassed look Louisa said: "Just the Churchill suite at the Savoy was 1,259 pounds."

Ruth actually laughed at that. "James definitely beats Al!" she commented. "And what a great ability to strategize…"

"And lie!" said Martin.

"…which should be re-directed, of course," continued Ruth. "His punctuation could be better, but he's a good speller... I don't want a penny from you two. The money question is between me and James. I'll do just as he suggested. I can definitely use an errand boy."

"But this will lead him to believe that under certain circumstances, or for any cause he sees fit, stealing is acceptable!" protested Martin.

"I don't think so," replied Ruth. "James is only nine and very enterprising, which is good, and he chose to take a moral action, or what would be deemed moral in his worldview: helping his parents out of trouble, as he imagined. I would not worry about his moral compass Martin, he just needs to mature. And he is very considerate about his sister."

"Yes," agreed Martin, "good of the little rascal to protect his sister. "

"You two though…" Ruth now sounded quite stern, "… either you buy a thicker door or you need to have your arguments well away from the children."

Martin felt duly chastised. He lowered his head and mumbled: "Yes, Ruth," looking himself like a boy caught red handed.

"There's a piece of humble pie," thought Louisa while nodding assent to Ruth.

"Look, they are about to come on stage. Before you give the boy a piece of your mind about stealing Martin," concluded Ruth, "you must consider that he is probably on tenterhooks right now, not knowing how the two of you are doing together… and not knowing how I will react to this letter. That does not bode well for the king of the elves' performance, does it? I think he needs to see there is a way out of this mess."

"What are you proposing? I'm not sure I understand," said Martin confused.

But Louisa caught Ruth's meaning all too well.

"Just play along," she said to her very puzzled husband.

As the children filed onto the stage they were soon able to spy James' white, tense face. He knew his parents and Ruth would be in the audience of course. Knowing James well, Martin and Louisa also knew their son's anxious look had nothing to do with performing on stage. Ruth must be right about this bit of psychology as well: James was indeed on edge.

When James caught their eye from a distance Ruth held his letter in sight and sent him one of her lopsided grins. This raised James' spirit immediately, but when he turned slightly to look at his parents he gaped: mum seemed to be kissing dad on the lips right in front of everybody! Other people did this, it's not as if he'd never seen it. But this was no quick peck. What was it? It was a kiss like sometimes you see on the telly or the cinema! Then mum let dad go, and waved at James happily. Dad was standing stock still and, James couldn't be sure from a distance, likely very red in the face. Until mum nudged him on the side and he also waved a little. How odd. But if they were kissing like that… the second honeymoon had worked! Yes, he knew it would work! He sent a huge smile back to his parents.

Louisa squeezed Martin's hand and whispered: "Thank you, he'll be fine now."

"Was that really necessary? In front of the whole village?" hissed Martin.

"Martin, did you hear anyone commenting? I didn't. We've been married and steady long enough that we're old news, nothing to gossip about."

That effectively silenced Martin, as there was no contradicting that point.

The pageant started. It was the usual fare, but the children performed really well. The show included the singing of a number of carols and it was quite enjoyable. The king of the elves, who had inherited his singing abilities from his mother, let his soprano soar with zest, and was really quite impressive, even though the stage curtains partially closed during his solo. At the end there was a lot of genuine applause, even from Martin.

Soon after it was over all the children started streaming from the stage looking for their parents. James and Joanie arrived running joyously to join their family. Martin though could not and would not pretend all was well. The pageant was finished, now was the time of reckoning.

Martin cleared is voice and the look he sent James sent a chill up the boy's spine, and up Louisa's as well.

"Joanie,"said Louisa, "we need to speak to James for a minute. I see Melanie right there. Why don't you spend a few minutes with her?"

Joanie shook her head disconsolately, looking at James, and mouthed without sound: "Disaster!" But she walked to Melanie, turning around to look back only twice.

"One of the staging rooms," Louisa said simply. She motioned towards the side of the big hall, taking a quivering James by the hand. Martin and Ruth followed.

Louisa closed the room behind her and hoped for both her men's sake that Martin could say what must be said without too much harshness.

Martin had decided to omit the talk with Al so that he would not appear as a spy in James' eyes. He decided to start with a simple statement of facts: "James… Ruth showed us the letter you wrote, and this morning your mother and I talked and figured out what must have happened. "

"What?" said James "You didn't talk last night?"

Both Louisa and Ruth had to suppress a smile, but Martin, after blushing briefly, was not amused.

"Be quiet James. There is no other way to put it. You are a thief. You took advantage of your aunt and stole her money…"

"I did not take the money in her wallet, just the card!"

"DO NOT INTERRUPT BOY, UNDERSTAND?" thundered Martin, and James looked so stricken that Louisa visibly flinched and had a really difficult time not to gather the poor boy in her arms. "Trust Martin," Louisa was repeating to herself to control her urge to intervene, "trust Martin."

"You are a thief and a liar," repeated Martin in a cold, angry voice, "using the credit card is the same as taking money from someone's wallet! You lied to Ruth, you lied to your mother, and you lied to me via text message. What on Earth were you thinking?! Why did you steal and lie in such a… such a devious manner just to send us on a second honeymoon?"

James was obviously understanding the gravity of what he had done fully for the first time. It had partially sunk in when Al told him, but not like this. He had never seen his father so angry and clearly disappointed in him. His dad never spoke to him so harshly. James felt himself shaken to the core and he started visibly trembling. He knew his father was a good man, so if he was so angry he must really think that what James had done was truly horrible. "You are a thief and a liar!" kept whirling through James' mind, his dad made it sound like it was the most awful thing in the world. He must explain. What to him had been a good natured, secret plan to help his parents was turning into a nightmare. He must explain.

"I heard you," said James, voice cracking and shrill, on the verge of tears, "I heard you, everything you screamed to each other. I took a plastic cup and put it on the keyhole, I could hear it all. That, that… when mum…" and here poor James broke down, he burst into tears and his voice broke, "…when mum had me in her tummy you did not want us! You did not want ME… You were with Edith instead…and… and you married mum just because of ME, but… is it my fault?...If… if … if you yell like that, then you divorce. I don't want you to divorce!" he almost screamed in the effort to control his voice, with tears streaming copiously down his cheeks now, in obvious despair. "I want you together, together, always! You have to want us dad, me and mum and Joanie!" and he was trying so hard to control himself but couldn't, his entire small body was shaking like a leaf.

Martin felt his head swimming, his stomach contracting, a cold sweat breaking through, and his hands trembling. How could he have done to James, his baby James, the same harm his parents had done to him, to make him believe he was unwanted? The feeling, never too deeply buried, of utter desolation, despair and guilt at knowing to be unwanted took possession of his adult being as it so often had when he had been as young as James. A tide of sorrow washed over him. He went down on one knee in front of his son, so they could be eye to eye.

"James that is not true, not true at all! It was a very bad misunderstanding between your mother and I. I did want you, I did love mum and you. It really hurt that I could not be with mum back then, but I so wanted to. Understand that, there is not a moment that I don't want you or love you. And your mother and I are fools to scream at each other like that, I'm sorry James, so so sorry, it will never happen again, I'm sorry."

"Second piece of humble pie," thought Louisa, relieved that Martin's harshness was gone.

"But be certain of this James," continued Martin, "if mum and I have a… lively discussion about anything, and even if we disagree a lot, it will never mean I don't want you, or mum, or Joanie. It will not mean we are getting a divorce. It will mean a difference of opinion, not divorce. "

Then Louisa, who by now had tears in her eyes as well, put one hand on James' shoulder and lightly squeezed, in a reassuring gesture. Her other hand went absently, but very possessively, into Martin's hair, raking fingers through his short cropped hair just as she had done the night before in bed, and she said with complete finality in her tone: "Never divorce, James, never. We made a promise to be together till death do us part, and we intend to keep it."

Martin looked up and sent her a look of infinite gratitude, then turned to James again, who was cleaning his face with his elfish sleeves and calming down a bit. Martin hugged his son tight and patted him on the back. They touched foreheads, in their old gesture of affection. Then pulling apart again Martin said:

"This does not mean it is acceptable to steal, however. You will have to make amends to Aunt Ruth. I trust her to find some tasks you can perform for her, with no tips whatsoever, for as long as she sees fit. Understood?"

"Yes," said James softly, grateful, relieved that the worst was over, and totally overjoyed that mum and dad were promising to stay together forever. He knew in his heart that he would never, ever steal anything again in his life, no matter the cause.

Martin got up and let James hide his face into his jacket, while he ruffled his son's blond hair a bit.

"Let's go back to the hall," said Louisa after a while. "I really need to talk to some of the parents. "

Martin nodded and they all walked back to the main hall which was full of children still in their costumes and running around joyously, with a throng of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and seemingly the entire village milling around.

After all was said and done James still had a question though, and an important one at that.

"But dad," James said very seriously, "I do have to know something, I need to ask."

Martin looked down at his son and the look on that young face suddenly seemed that of a wise father to his child, in an impossible role reversal that had Martin quiver for a moment.

"Yes James?" said Martin dubiously.

"When you and mum decided to have a baby, to have ME… were you married or did you mount her?"

At that both Ruth and Louisa, as well as several people nearby who had overheard, could not help themselves and burst out laughing, especially at the sight of Martin blushing violently red and standing stock still with an apoplectic look on his face. Never had he had a look more pleading for help than in that moment, so Louisa controlled herself with effort while James muttered: "What did I say that was so funny?" But just as Louisa was about to speak, one of the many burly fishermen of Portwenn snickered and said loudly enough for Martin to hear: "Oh, he mounted her alright, no doubt about that, you look just like him boy."

Martin turned a shade of purple and Ruth, in her usual deadpan, commented: "Why is there never a medical emergency when you need one? "

Taking her cue from that Louisa said: "Martin, Mrs. Tishell was telling me about an article the other day, about meningitis symptoms and how to recognize them in children at school. "

Without thinking about it, as Louisa had hoped, Martin immediately answered: "Yes, meningitis symptoms can be hard to distinguish from those of other conditions," and from there he launched into a detailed medical disquisition which had the two effects Louisa intended: Martin's color slowly went back to normal as he visibly relaxed, and everyone got bored very quickly so the crowd around them dispersed.

James though pulled on his mother's sleeve and said: "But he didn't answer my question! "

"Shhh!" hissed Louisa in her sternest Head Teacher mode, so that James was immediately silenced. Then in a serious but gentler tone she whispered: "Later at home James we will explain as much as is proper to explain to a nine year old."

"Okay," nodded James and went to join some of the other elves as at this point he really needed a bit of fun.

* * *

 _December 25_

On Christmas day the children woke up early and found that Father Christmas had been very generous this year as they each had many shining big and small boxes to open.

Martin was in charge of cooking the turkey and he had gotten up even before the children to make sure it would be ready by Noon, when Ruth was due to arrive. Louisa was in charge of the rest of their meal, busy all morning with vegetables, mince pies, pasties, Christmas pudding and cake, flowery centerpiece, and Martin lost count of what else. Of course the house was all decorated, with a very large tree sparkling with lights and shining ornaments, and a very prominent Cornish Christmas bush. With the turkey taking care of itself in the oven, Martin was able to spend nearly the whole morning with the children. Mostly he was Joanie's patient as she tried out all the medical instruments from her new deluxe set of OPERATION. Martin whispered the correct names of instruments and procedures into Joanie's ear, and she mangled them back to him enthusiastically. Louisa was stunned when she heard Martin pretend to call an ambulance at some point, and make a noise that sounded suspiciously like a suppressed giggle once when Joanie's o-perating on his stomach had evidently tickled him. But Martin also helped James build a huge tower with his new extra-large Meccano set, while occasionally checking the turkey and once kissing the back of Louisa's neck while passing by.

A little before Noon Ruth called. She requested her "indentured servant" James to come help her carry a box to the surgery. James did not mind, put on his coat and happily scampered down Roscarrock Hill and on to Ruth's cottage. The box was too heavy to carry for the old lady, though not too much for James.

Finally the great Christmas meal was ready and everyone was very hungry by then. The table was beautiful, Louisa had outdone herself spreading flowers and candy and artfully arranging their best china. Martin carved the turkey and the rest of the fare was passed or served around and eaten with good cheer.

At the end of the meal it was time to exchange all those presents that had not been brought by Father Christmas. There were scarves and books for Ruth; books for everyone from Ruth; a gold chain with an antique pendant for Louisa from Martin, which left her speechless; a miniature antique clock for Martin from Louisa, which made him itch to take it apart; and drawings for everyone from the children.

The children's pictures were nice, rather typical images of Christmas or of Portwenn, except for one, which was the picture from James to his dad. This picture showed a large dun horse next to a smaller, dainty brown horse, both smiling widely, and a stick figure of a farmer in front of them with a book in his hands. Added next to this unlikely trio were a smaller dun horse and an even smaller brown horse, both also smiling widely. This picture Martin decided to frame, as it was the most truthful picture anyone had ever given him. He hung it in his consulting room, and when anyone asked what it was he very menacingly deadpanned: "Family portrait."

 **The End**

 **Happy and Merry Christmas everyone!**


End file.
